Boston-based asset manager GMO has announced new additions to its leadership team, including two new hires from QMA, the quantitative unit of PGIM.
GMO said Wednesday that Roy Henriksson, QMA’s chief investment officer, has been tapped for the newly created role of head of investment risk and trading. According to the statement, Henriksson will “provide risk oversight across all GMO investment and trading activities while also contributing to GMO’s quantitative research efforts.”
QMA had announced earlier this week that Henriksson would leave the firm in October. George Patterson, currently co-head of quantitative equities, will succeed him as CIO, the quant firm said Monday.
QMA chief executive Andrew Dyson said in a statement that the firm “found it necessary to restructure” its portfolio management team based on QMA’s investment performance over the last two-and-a-half years, which Dyson called “an outlier versus our 25-year history of delivering alpha for clients.”
“We do not shy away from difficult short-term decisions that will improve our long-term standing,” Dyson said in a statement.
Alongside the change in CIO, QMA announced a few other internal promotions and said it planned to restructure its equity business, including expanding its customized solutions and environmental, social, and governance capabilities. The restructure will also include the integration of London-based Wadhwani Asset Management, which PGIM acquired last year.
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Meanwhile, GMO has also hired QMA’s head of global multi-asset solutions, George Sakoulis. Sakoulis — who was a senior member of GMO’s emerging markets equity team from 2009 to 2014 — will rejoin GMO in August as head of investment teams, according to the value manager’s statement. He succeeds Andy Martin, who is taking on the role of head of investment product strategy.
GMO said that Sakoulis will oversee all investment teams except for the asset allocation team, which is led by Ben Inker.
“With George and Roy joining Ben and Andy in investment leadership, we are adding complementary expertise to our already strong team,” GMO chief executive Scott Hayward said in a statement.
Other appointments GMO announced Wednesday include Carolyn Haley, who was promoted to head of operations, finance, and fund treasury and tax, and Hylton Socher, who joined the firm in January as its first chief technology officer. Current chief operating officer Jean-Pierre Mittaz will transition to a senior advisor role, GMO said.
In addition to the leadership changes, GMO announced its planned acquisition of Usonian Investments, a value-oriented Japanese equity firm managing more than $1 billion. The firm’s strategy, led by portfolio manager Drew Edwards, will be offered both as a standalone product and within GMO’s asset allocation portfolios, according to the statement.
“The acquisition of Usonian brings another differentiated alpha source to our clients,” Hayward added.
