Barings CEO Tom Finke steps down. Exec had led Charlotte firm since formation
Barings CEO Tom Finke is stepping down from the Charlotte-based asset manager, the firm announced Thursday.
Mike Freno, who was named president in February, will be the firm’s next CEO effective immediately, the company said. Barings, which manages over $354 billion of mostly debt and is owned by the insurance giant MassMutual, employs about 1,800 globally.
“I have been honored to lead the firm through its first four years as Barings, as we built a truly outstanding global investment management firm. It is satisfying to see Barings operating from a position of strength as Mike now takes the reins to drive Barings’ ambitious growth and transformation strategy,” Finke said in a statement.
Late in 2019, a transition plan started the process of readying Freno to take over the firm, Freno said in an interview. Freno, as president, started running the day-to-day business of the firm this year, he said. A Barings press release said Finke will leave the firm after November for “another opportunity.”
In 2016, MassMutual combined Babson Capital Management with three other firms it owned, one of which was a former unit of the defunct British concern Barings Bank, to create a new Barings. The move created one of the largest investment-management firms in the U.S..
Finke, then head of Babson Capital, was chosen to lead the combined firm. It opened its new Charlotte headquarters at 300 South Tryon St. in 2017.
Finke was a driving force in keeping Babson Capital in Charlotte, rebuffing multiple entreaties for him to move to MassMutual’s headquarters in Springfield, Mass., according to the Financial Times.
The result of Finke’s resistance has been continued steady growth for Charlotte’s asset management industry, punctuated with the May opening of a new Charlotte office of Dimensional Fund Advisors, the Austin, Texas-based investment firm.
Charlotte’s version of Barings adopted a name with plenty of pedigree and some inauspicious history.
The original Barings Bank collapsed in 1995 after a rogue derivatives trader, Nick Leeson, lost over $1 billion betting on the direction of the Japanese stock market. Leeson was sentenced to prison and the original Barings was bought by Dutch firm ING for one British pound.
Freno, the new CEO, has been with the firm for 15 years, and lives in Charlotte. The city will remain the firm’s headquarters, according to Freno. “Charlotte has been very good to us in terms of attracting and maintaining talent and giving our employees the ability to have a good standard of living,“ he said.
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 8:49 AM.