Loomis Sayles Boosts Its Ranks

Loomis Sayles has added two portfolio managers in the wake of Kathleen Gaffney's much-publicized October 2012 departure. Brian Kennedy and Todd Vandam, both Loomis Sayles veterans with close to two decades' experience with the firm, join a team that includes Dan Fuss, Elaine Stokes, and Matt Eagan.

Kennedy got his start as a trader with the firm and has been a product manager on the team with significant involvement in portfolio construction. He has been formally named a comanager on  Loomis Sayles Investment Grade Bond  and Loomis Sayles Investment Grade Fixed Income (LSIGX). There have been no other changes to the manager lineups on those funds.

Todd Vandam, who specializes in high-yield credit and investment-grade assets, was named as a portfolio manager on Loomis Sayles Strategic Alpha (LABAX) in 2010. He is joining Eagan and Stokes on the U.S. High Yield portfolio management team but has not formally been added as a portfolio manager on any additional mutual funds.

Mark Madden Leaves TCW
On Dec. 31, 2012, TCW managing director Mark H. Madden left the firm to pursue other opportunities. Madden had been responsible for overseeing the equity research process for TCW Worldwide Opportunities, which is a total return, separate accounts strategy focused on best ideas across the entire emerging-markets debt and equity spectrum. This responsibility will be assumed by the 11-member emerging-markets research team that currently supports both the Worldwide Opportunities strategy and the emerging-markets fixed-income strategies. Portfolio structure and asset-allocation decisions will continue to be driven by TCW group managing director Penelope D. Foley and managing director David Robbins.

Madden once ran the mutual fund TCW Emerging Markets. With his departure, Rohit Sah, who runs TCW International Growth  and  TCW International Small Cap , is TCW's only emerging-markets equity portfolio manager.

Oppenheimer Names Comanagers on 2 Funds
Hemant Baijal was named as a portfolio manager on  Oppenheimer International Bond (OIBAX), joining lead manager Sara Zervos and comanager Art Steinmetz. Baijal joined Oppenheimer in 2011 and has managed the developed-markets sleeve of the fund since that time. He will continue to run that portion of the fund but will be more involved in broader portfolio decisions going forward. Oppenheimer also named Jack Brown as a portfolio manager on  Oppenheimer Global Strategic Income (OPSIX). The fund incorporates several teams from across Oppenheimer's fixed-income division. Brown replaces Joseph Welsh to run the high-yield bond sleeve of the portfolio. Welsh remains at the firm as head of the bank-loan and high-yield team and continues to be the lead manager on  Oppenheimer Senior Floating Rate (OOSAX). Brown has been a member of that team since 2000 and has helped manage the high-yield sleeve of Strategic Income for the past year.

Longtime JPMorgan Fund Manager Takes Leave of Absence
JPMorgan announced Glenn Gawronski, the lead portfolio manager for  JPMorgan Small Cap Equity (VSEAX), took a leave of absence from the firm, effective Feb. 4. JPMorgan did not disclose when Gawronski would return to the helm of the fund. Don San Jose now serves as the fund's lead manager, having been a comanager on the fund since November 2007 and an analyst for the fund since 2004. JPMorgan named its CIO of growth and small-cap equities, Chris Jones, to be the fund's new comanager. Gawronski had delivered one of the best records in the small-growth category. Since he was named the lead manager in September 2004, the fund returned 11.8% annualized through Feb. 4, topping all but one of its rivals. The fund has $2.5 billion in assets and currently is closed to new investors.

New Trustees and Chairman Named to JPMorgan's Fund Board
Following three retirements from its fund board at the end of 2012, JPMorgan announced several changes to the board. Matthew Goldstein was named chairman, replacing Fergus Reid, who held that role since 2005 and recently retired. Goldstein has been an independent trustee on the board since 2003. The board brought on board three new trustees: Mary Martinez, Mitchell Merin, and Marian Pardo. All three new members have previous experience in the asset-management industry.

FPA Makes New Analytical Hires
FPA announced it has hired Victor Liu for FPA International Value . Liu, who previously had been an analyst at Causeway, joins Pierre Py, who was part of the duo that left Harris Associates. Py's former cohort, Eric Bokota, resigned last year because of personal reasons. Also, FPA hired Melina Newman as analyst for  FPA New Income  (FPNIX) to focus on corporate bonds, beefing up the firm's capabilities in this area after it missed out on buying cheap corporate bonds in late 2008.

Vanguard to Add Foreign Bonds to Its Target-Date Funds and to Launch TIPS Fund
Click here for Morningstar mutual fund analyst David Falkof's special Fund Times alert from Wednesday about some changes at Vanguard.

Prominent Putnam Manager Resigns
Click here for Morningstar mutual fund analyst Rob Wherry's special Fund Times alert from Feb. 1 about the departure of Putnam's head of its global asset-allocation team, Jeff Knight.

Carlyle Group Completes Acquisition of TCW
On Feb. 6, private-equity firm The Carlyle Group announced that it had completed its acquisition of TCW from Societe Generale. That concluded a process announced last summer that represented something of a reverse takeover on the part of Metropolitan West Asset Management, which was acquired by TCW in late 2009. MetWest veteran David Lippman has joined TCW's board and taken over the CEO role from Marc Stern, who now becomes TCW's chairman.

Now, TCW employees will own approximately 40% of TCW, on a fully diluted basis. No changes to the firm's investment teams are expected.

Morningstar Canada director of fund analysis Christopher Davis, senior mutual fund analysts Karin Anderson and Sarah Bush, and fund analysts David Falkof, Robert Goldsborough, and Kathryn Spica contributed to this report.