Key Barings promotion helps cement Charlotte leadership at investment management firm

Barings promoted longtime executive Michael Freno to president, the Charlotte-based asset manager said Wednesday.

He was previously head of global markets at the firm, which oversees about $340 billion in assets and is owned by the insurance giant MassMutual. In the new role, he reports to the firm’s chairman and CEO Tom Finke.

“Mike has a strong record of driving strategic growth and developing relationships with key clients,” Finke said in a statement.

The move cements more Charlotte-based leadership at the global firm.

Freno, a Clearwater, Fla.-native, attended Furman University in Greenville, S.C., and Wake Forest University’s executive MBA program in Charlotte. Prior to joining Barings in 2005, he worked at the hedge fund Mangan & McColl and at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In 2016, MassMutual joined Charlotte-based 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 combination created one of the largest investment-management firms in the country. The combined institution opened its new Charlotte headquarters at 300 South Tryon St. in 2017.

As a financial services firm in Charlotte, “We’ve had the blessing to tap the financial services talent here,” Freno said in an interview after his promotion. “We do check a lot of boxes for a desirable place for people to come to work, to raise families, and to grow in their career.”

That’s borne out in Baring’s top executives, most of which spent time at other Charlotte firms.

This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 4:15 PM.