Deals & People July 28, 2011

Manulife Adds Large Cap Growth Team

Manulife Asset Management has expanded its equity investment capabilities with the hiring of Jay Zelko, David Chow, and Curtis Ifill, to be led by W. Shannon Reid, CFA.
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The new U.S. Large Cap Growth team, which will be based in Charlotte, North Carolina, comes to Manulife from Wells Capital Management. The team has been working together for more than ten years, and has been with WellsCap since it acquired Evergreen Investments.

According to the announcement, the team’s investment process employs fundamentally-oriented, bottom-up stock selection with a very clear focus on risk management that has enabled them to deliver strong and consistent performance to institutional and retail clients.

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“The U.S. Large Cap Growth team rounds out Manulife Asset Management’s fundamental equity capabilities in large asset categories, and we welcome them to our organization,” said J-F Courville, President and CEO of Manulife Asset Management. “This high-quality group of investment managers fits well with our culture that empowers our teams to operate in a boutique environment, while providing the resources and intellectual network of a global leader.”

Reid will act as Senior Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager. Most recently, he was a senior portfolio manager with the Strategic Large Cap Growth Equity team at WellsCap. He managed a large cap growth equity team at Evergreen, and previously served as a senior research analyst and portfolio manager for Falcon Investments Ltd. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Zelko, CFA, joins the team as Managing Director and Portfolio Manager. He began his investment industry career at Evergreen in 1987 after earning his bachelor’s degree in finance from Cleveland State University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Chow, CFA, will also serve as Managing Director and Portfolio Manager. He was a portfolio manager at Evergreen, and previously worked at Moody’s Investors Service. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Ifill, CFA, will serve as Director and Senior Investment Analyst. He also began his investment career at Evergreen. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Johnson C. Smith University.

Deals & People July 28, 2011

Freedom One Names John Caldwell CIO

Freedom One Financial Group, a 401(k) consultant firm, has appointed John A. Caldwell to its executive team as chief investment officer.
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Based in Clarkston, Michigan, Caldwell will manage the investment team of Freedom One Investment Advisors and communicate with plan sponsors and participants regarding the firm’s investment process. He will also be responsible for conducting research, facilitating direct asset allocation decisions, and developing market and economic forecasts.

Caldwell comes to the firm with more than 15 years of experience in investment policy design, fund manager selection and oversight, portfolio management and financial statement analysis. He previously served at McDonald Investments as chief investment strategist and managing director of portfolio strategy. Prior to McDonald, he acted as executive director for a portfolio management division of UBS Financial Services. He has also managed model portfolios for asset management groups with more than $30 billion in assets as well as a large cap portfolio with nearly $2 billion in assets.

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Caldwell earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from Cleveland State University, and holds various FINRA licenses, including Series 7, 9/10, 16 and 86/87.

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