Latest Content » STRATEGIES, ALLOCATION & PERFORMANCE » The Dream Team

— Dynamic duo: Oliver Behrens, head of the German institutional business (left) and Michael Fuss, director of business management support

Mandate losses and staff volatility have taken their toll on Deutsche Asset Management. But the firm’s European heads are confident a corner has been turned. Interview by Roxane McMeeken.

 Regrouping after a string of mandate losses, Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) has won a small victory that could signal a turnaround in its fortunes. The firm has retreated to its heartland, moving its headquarters from London to Frankfurt, so it is fitting that its face-saving €25bn new mandate is from Zurich Group Germany.

— Quality quartet: Ken Kroner(left), managing director, asset allocation research; Mike O’Brien, head of relationship management;

Pulling in large contracts comes after the gradual development of a trusting client relationship, says BGI’s transatlantic sales and fund management team. Interview by Roxane McMeeken.

If anyone knows how to win business from institutional investors it’s the world’s largest index manager Barclays Global Investors. Despite the departure of a star salesman a year ago, the firm is still managing to pull in large contracts, such as a £1.3bn (e1.8bn) mandate won from Fujitsu Services in 2004.

— Nigel Meir, head of institutional sales and distribution, UK and Scandinavia

Despite fierce competition Pioneer Investments’ global management team is confident it can build a substantial institutional presence worldwide. Interview by Roxane McMeeken.

There is nothing particularly remarkable about a medium-sized funds manager seeking to expand, but what is unique about Pioneer Investments is that while it is in this very position, it also has the advantage of a ready-made global presence. Pioneer’s global team is aiming to use this unique position to fuel an aggressive drive into the institutional market.

The firm, based in Boston, Dublin, London, Milan and Singapore, has a distinct approach to winning business and running the resulting money, which it aims to apply uniformly across the world.

— Group dynamics: from left to right – back row, Tony Earnshaw, team head, Ian Davidson, key client relationship manager; middle row, Michelle Hilliman, director of middle office operations, Heico de Boer, sales director Continental Europe, John Greene senior international manager researcher; front, Véronique Botton, programme manager

While quantitative analysis plays a part, of equal importance to Northern Trust’s European multi-manager team is whether a prospective fund manager is enthusiastic and imaginative – corporate drones needn’t apply. Interview by Roxane McMeeken.

Size and reputation makes State Street’s team the kind you hire to run the core part of a portfolio, says Roxane McMeeken.

AlpInvest, with e20bn in assets, has rapidly become one of the world’s leading private equity houses without actively marketing itself. Simon Hildrey explains.