This Charlotte-based investment firm is shifting its senior leadership. Here’s why.
Charlotte-based investment management firm Barings is creating a new executive role and shuffling a few of its senior leaders as it looks to expand and keep up a “record” recent performance.
Eric Lloyd will take on the title of president, previously held by Barings chairman and CEO Mike Freno, the company said Wednesday. In the new role, Lloyd will take on some of Freno’s responsibilities and manage functions like distribution, research and business development.
Lloyd, previously Barings’ head of private assets, has worked in financial services in Charlotte for more than two decades, previously for Wells Fargo and its predecessor Wachovia. David Mihalick will take on his former role at Barings.
When Freno took on the CEO role last November, Barings managed about $354 billion in assets. Since then, that number has grown to more than $387 billion.
Barings is also creating a new head of international position, to be held by Duncan Robertson. The firm has offices in London, Sydney and Hong Kong, among several other cities in Asia and Europe.
Since Freno became CEO last year, Lloyd said that the two realized the firm could use another executive to help Freno oversee the firm’s growth strategy.
“Everybody else on the investment side is really tied to their particular lines of business,” Lloyd told the Observer. “Mike wanted someone to continue to operate on an enterprise-wide level with him.”
In a similar way, Robertson will help create and oversee a strategy for Barings’ international markets, Lloyd said. The company, which is a subsidiary of MassMutual and caters primarily to institutional investors, has 19 offices abroad and six in the U.S..
The firm has about 690 employees at its headquarters in Charlotte. And it isn’t ruling out future mergers or acquisitions, Lloyd said. But for now, its primary focus is on organic growth.
“There’s no grand plan or some new initiative that we think will change the company in any direction,” he said. “A lot of it is to keep doing what we’ve done. That’s what’s proven to be successful.”
