Bill Price: Focused on managing money

Maybe it just seems to Bill Price that he has been on the road ever since Allianz acquired Dresdner Bank in 2001 and in the process created a money management colossus spanning much of the globe.

Maybe it just seems to Bill Price that he has been on the road ever since Allianz acquired Dresdner Bank in 2001 and in the process created a money management colossus spanning much of the globe. As the (ostensibly) San Franciscobased CIO of Allianz Dresdner Asset Management (assets: $360 billion), Price found himself roving a territory extending from Munich to New York to San Diego.

“It was an interesting experience but a lot of traveling,” he says. “I was still managing money and couldn’t do both jobs anymore.”

So next month the 62-year-old Price will cede his oversight duties -- and his boarding pass -- to 36-year-old Andreas Utermann, formerly Merrill Lynch Investment Managers’ global head of equities.

Based in London, Utermann will be racking up marathon frequent-flier miles of his own. As Price explains of the CIO job, “Allianz needs someone to implement and oversee a coherent equity investment structure without sacrificing the individuality of each firm’s process and philosophy.”

Thus this German financial services powerhouse has three distinct asset management arms in California alone -- Dresdner RCM Global Investors in San Francisco, Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management in San Diego and Pimco in Newport Beach -- as well as Oppenheimer Capital in New York.

Holding on to his second hat as CIO of $40 billion-in-assets Dresdner RCM, Price exults, “Now I’m going to solely focus on managing money again, which is exciting.”

He adds that his successor will have at least one less headache than he did: “He is not going to be managing any money.” Utermann was unavailable for comment -- he was on safari in Africa.

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