Deals & People March 3, 2009

Mercer Makes Domestic Equities, Fixed Income Appointments

Manny Weiss is joining Mercer as a portfolio manager for domestic equity strategies and Wilson Berglund is joining Mercer as a senior analyst in fixed income, the company announced.
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In its announcement, Mercer said the two key appointments to its U.S. operations were made “in order to support significant growth.” According to Rich Nuzum, President and Global Head of Mercer investment management: “During 2008 we added more than 45 new institutional defined benefit clients with initial funding exceeding $3.8 billion as well as a significant number of defined contribution and retail clients.”

Weiss will be responsible for Mercer’s Large Cap Value and Growth, Core Passive, and SMID Cap Growth and Value strategies. He will also be responsible for domestic equity manager research and analysis as well as recommending manager and strategy allocation changes within domestic equity strategies, the announcement said.

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Prior to joining Mercer, Weiss was an institutional portfolio manager at a hedge fund boutique, 2100 Capital, where he supported a range of products, from fund of hedge funds to multi-strategy hedge funds and individual strategy hedge funds, and also served as a member of the investment team. Previously, he was a managing director of Putnam Investment’s Core Growth equity team.

Berglund’s primary focus will include constructing and monitoring asset allocation for fixed income offerings, evaluating sub-advisers, and working with institutional investors to create customized solutions within a liability driven investment (LDI) framework. Prior to joining Mercer, Berglund was with Putnam Investments, most recently as a senior vice president, and portfolio manager in the Core Fixed Income team responsible for customized fixed income strategies for Insurance clients. Previously, he served as a senior product manager for Putnam Fixed Income.

Both Weiss and Berglund will be based in Boston.

Deals & People March 3, 2009

Mirchandani To Lead National Financial

Fidelity Investments named Sanjiv Mirchandani as president of National Financial, a provider of clearing, custody, and brokerage solutions.
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Mirchandani, a 15-year Fidelity veteran, succeeds Norman Malo, who announced his retirement earlier this year, according to a release from Fidelity. Mirchandani will report to Charles G. Goldman, president of Institutional Platforms at Fidelity.

Prior to his new position, Mirchandani was president of Products and Marketing for Fidelity’s Personal and Workplace Investing business. In this role, he led product and marketing strategies in brokerage, online trading, advisory services, and personal retirement, Fidelity said. Before holding that position, Mirchandani was executive vice president of Brokerage and Asset Management Products within Fidelity’s personal investments business. He has also served as general manager for Fidelity’s retail retirement business, which includes contributory IRAs, rollover IRAs, self-employment plans, and pre-retiree services.

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Mirchandani joined Fidelity in 1994, after spending six years at the American Express Company and working for Citibank’s consumer bank division.

“National Financial’s clients will benefit from Sanjiv’s strong brokerage industry knowledge, commitment to service excellence, and deep understanding of the needs of retail investors, who ultimately are the customers that broker/dealers serve every day,’ Goldman said, in a statement.

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