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Industry At A Glance

TIAA-CREF Hops Across The Pond

August 12, 2008 - In an effort to focus on European real estate, TIAA-CREF is opening a location overseas, its first foreign office since the plan's creation 90 years ago. According to a statement issued by the plan, TIAA-CREF is looking to increase its access to value-added and long-term investment opportunities in the region. …

Casey Quirk Picks Up Phillips

August 5, 2008 - Ben Phillips has stepped down from his post as partner and director of research at Jeffries Putnam Lovell, to join Casey Quirk & Associates. He will be responsible for managing and expanding the firm's research operations and overseeing its white papers, Casey Quirk said in a published statement. Plans on how Putnam Lovell plans to replace Phillips could not be ascertained, however. Richard Chimberg, spokesman for the firm could not be reached by press time.…

Northern Trust Names N.A. Consultant Head

July 30, 2008 - Matt Severs has been named head of consultant relations for Northern Trust's North America-based corporate and institutional services business. The position is a newly created one for the firm. Severs will work 'alongside relationship management, sales, product development and operations to support all asset servicing touch points between Northern Trust and the community,' the firm said in a prepared statement. …

MFC Gets New MD

July 25, 2008 - Brian Torrisi has joined MFC Global Investment Management (MFC) as managing director and head of U.S. consultant relations, the firm announced today. In that position, Torrisi will be responsible for developing, implementing, and managing all of the firm's investment consultant relationships. Torrisi will report to Frank Saeli, MFC's senior managing director and head of U.S. sales and relationship management. …

Northern Trust Report Finds Funds in the Red

July 22, 2008 - According to the data in the Northern Trust Universe, the majority of U.S. institutional investors posted negative returns for the quarter ending June 30--the third negative quarter in a row for participating plans in the study. The data is compiled by Northern Trust and represents over 300 institutional investment plans. The findings revealed that corporate and public plans posted median returns of -0.7% for the quarter, with foundations and endowment plans performing better but still reporting…

BlackRock's Still Going Strong

July 17, 2008 - Against the trend of recent losses in the financial world, BlackRock reported a 23% increase for the second quarter of 2008 compared to the same time last year. The firm's reported net income for the quarter was $274 million as compared with $222 million in the second quarter of 2007. The firm's assets under management were up 5% and now stand at approximately $1.4 trillion. …

Garden State Loses $5 Billion

July 16, 2008 - New Jersey State's pension fund saw its portfolio take a $5 billion hit during the last fiscal year, according to a release issued by the New Jersey Department of Treasury. The New Jersey Division of Investment (DOI) reported that the fund was down by 3.0% for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, bringing its total assets to $77.7 billion. …

Progress Now Wholly Employee-Owned

July 15, 2008 - San Francisco-based Progress Investment Management Company has announced that it completed a buyout in June of the 40% equity interest that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Retirement Fund (MBTARF) held in the firm, making Progress now a completely employee-owned business. Progress is a minority-owned firm that specializes in the creation of multi-manager strategies using emerging managers within the domestic and non-U.S. equities, fixed-income and private equity fund-of-funds asset class. The firm manages approximately $7 billion…

Denali To Launch Long/Short Equity Product

July 14, 2008 - Denali Advisors is reportedly planning to join in on the long/short equity fray with plans to launch a 130/30 fund later this year. The fund—Denali Equities +--will be marketed to institutional investors and be run by Michael Munson. He will apply the firm's quantitative model to run the strategy. According to published reports, the La Jolla, Calif.-based Denali will roll the product out with $25 million to $75 million in assets.…

Legendary John Templeton Dead at 95

July 8, 2008 - Sir John Templeton, founder of the Templeton Funds, now owned by Franklin Templeton Investments, and who first came to Wall Street in 1937, passed away today at the age of 95 from pneumonia in Nassau, Bahamas. Templeton, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1987 for his charitable works, launched his first global mutual fund, the Templeton Growth Fund, in 1954, 'when most people's concept of investing didn't extend beyond Wall Street,' as Franklin Templeton honors him on its Web site.…

Invesco Makes Addition to Quant Team

July 7, 2008 - Andrew Waisburd has joined Invesco as a quantitative research analyst, spokesman Bill Hensel said. Based in Boston, he will be a part of Invesco Quantitative Strategies (IQS), and report to Anthony Shufflebotham, head of U.S. research for the unit. Waisburd will have joint responsibility for quantifying and testing fundamental and behavior investment insights, among other duties. He was most recently a senior quantitative analyst at the Chicago-based Harris Investment Management (HIM). …

Big Apple Funds In the Red

June 27, 2008 - New York City's five pension funds lost a total of $5 billion in the nine months leading up to March 31, according to a report released by the New York City Comptroller's office. It is predicted that if the plans do not recoup the losses by the end of the fiscal year, New York City will be faced with providing a bailout worth several billions of dollars. The New York City funds include the Teachers' Retirement System,…

FBI Makes Subprime Arrests

June 19, 2008 - Former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were arrested and taken to a Brooklyn Federal court today. The charges are the first to come out of federal investigations of possible fraud on the part of banks and mortgage companies whose investments in subprime loans led to nearly $400 billion in losses for Wall Street. Allegedly, Cioffi and Tannin discussed the state of the hedge funds and acknowledged that they were in…

Texas Plan to Add CIO Role

May 28, 2008 - The $1.7 billion City of Austin Employees' Retirement System (COAERS) will soon hire its first-ever CIO at the plan, said Stephen Edmonds, executive director at the plan. Edmonds explained that the board plans to conduct a search for the new position, however the details and timing of the search have yet to be completely finalized. According to the most recent financial summary on the plan's Web site, COAERS' asset allocation consists of 15.53% non-large-cap domestic stocks,…

CalPERS' Read to Leave CIO Post

April 23, 2008 - Russell Read is stepping down from his position as investment head at the $244.1 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) after nearly two years in the position, confirmed Clark McKinley, a spokesman for the fund.