Capital Group Shuffles Leadership as CEO Is Set to Retire

Mike Gitlin, Capital Group’s current head of fixed income and global trading, will take over as the firm’s CEO on Oct. 24, 2023. He will replace Tim Armour, Capital’s chair and CEO since 2015, who will retire at the end of 2023. Unlike Armour, who has spent his entire career at Capital, Gitlin has only been at the firm for eight years. During his tenure, however, he has helped turn Capital’s fixed-income group into one of the largest active fixed-income managers in the business. Indeed, during the past five calendar years, Capital Group has taken in roughly one third of all active fixed-income flows and managed more than $450 billion in fixed-income assets as of December 2022.

Armour, a Capital Group lifer, caps a 40-year career at the firm in which he rose from an analyst to portfolio manager to executive. Rob Lovelace will step down as Capital Group’s vice chair and president, but he will stay on as a portfolio manager. As management committee leaders, Armour and Lovelace have helped steer the firm’s strategy, particularly efforts to expand globally. Recently, Armour and the management committee have steered the firm into active exchange-traded funds, which was a big move for the cautious firm and for the ETF industry overall. Lovelace also has championed the firm’s integration of environmental, social, and governance issues into the firm’s investment approach.

Gitlin won’t be alone at the top. Capital Group opted to split the responsibilities among a trio of industry veterans. Gitlin will become president and CEO of Capital Group and chair of the management committee. Martin Romo, who leads the firm’s Capital Research Company unit, will become chair of Capital Group and CIO. Jody Jonsson will become Capital Group’s vice chair and continue as president and executive committee chair of subsidiary Capital Research and Management Company. All three members already belonged to the firm’s 10-person management committee.

Gitlin previously served as T. Rowe Price’s head of fixed income and has more than 28 years of investment experience. In his new role, Gitlin hopes to continue the firm’s long-term direction by focusing on growing its lineup and capabilities globally. Romo and Jonsson have spent more than 30 years at Capital Group each and will continue to manage equity portfolios for the firm.