Skip to main content
MENU
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • Account
  • LOGIN
  • Topics
    • Alternatives
    • Consultants
    • Coronavirus
    • Courts
    • Defined Contribution
    • ESG
    • ETFs
    • Hedge Funds
    • Industry Voices
    • Investing
    • Money Management
    • Opinion
    • Partner Content
    • Pension Funds
    • Private Equity
    • Real Estate
    • Russia-Ukraine War
    • SECURE Act 2.0
    • Special Reports
    • White Papers
  • Rankings & Awards
    • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
    • Top-Performing Managers
    • Largest Money Managers
    • DC Money Managers
    • DC Record Keepers
    • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
    • World's Largest Retirement Funds
    • Best Places to Work in Money Management
    • Excellence & Innovation Awards
    • WPS Innovation Awards
    • Eddy Awards
  • ETFs
    • Latest ETF News
    • Fund Screener
    • Education Center
    • Equities
    • Fixed Income
    • Commodities
    • Actively Managed
    • Alternatives
    • ESG Rated
  • ESG
    • Latest ESG News
    • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
    • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
    • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
    • Impact Investing
    • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
    • ESG Rated ETFs
  • Defined Contribution
    • Latest DC News
    • DC Money Manager Rankings
    • DC Record Keeper Rankings
    • Innovations in DC
    • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
    • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
    • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
  • Searches & Hires
    • Latest Searches & Hires News
    • Searches & Hires Database
    • RFPs
  • Performance Data
    • P&I Research Center
    • Earnings Tracker
    • Endowment Returns Tracker
    • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
    • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
    • Pension Risk Transfer Database
    • Future of Investments Research Series
    • Charts & Infographics
    • Polls
  • Careers
  • Events
    • View All Conferences
    • View All Webinars
    • 2022 Retirement Income Conference
    • 2022 Managing Pension Risk & Liabilities
    • 2022 WorldPensionSummit
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Print
May 17, 2004 01:00 AM

A clean, tight ship

Ricki Fulman
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    Four years ago, James "Jim" C. Robinson was named chairman and chief executive officer of Munder Capital Management, Birmingham, Mich. Mr. Robinson spent most of his career at Munder, joining the firm in 1987, two years after it was founded. Mr. Robinson was its sixth employee and the sole person working in fixed income his first six years. Gradually he built a fixed-income team and rose to become chief investment officer for fixed income as well as director of portfolio management. His promotion to CEO came at a period of turmoil for the company: founder Lee Munder had resigned. Recently P&I reporter Ricki Fulman interviewed Mr. Robinson about his accomplishments since moving into the corner office, and his goals for the firm.

    Q What happened when you took over as CEO?

    A At the time I was promoted, Comerica was concerned about our poor investment performance. After my predecessors were let go, we lost a ton of institutional clients — around $1.5 billion in assets. They said it was because of the management/organizational changes. Gene Miller from the bank and I flew around the country and met with each of the 20 clients who terminated us. Most of them knew me from running fixed income and believed the bank would screw things up. They took a wait-and-see approach after we met with them. They have all come back, but that took several years. First the money came back in fixed. Then more began to hire us for equity mandates. It's harder to persuade clients to come back than it is to get new ones, but once one gives you the seal of approval, others will consider you again.

    Q What is your mission at Munder now?

    A To be sure the products delivered to our clients are the ones they hired us to deliver, that they're suitable for the clients and that they outperform. It sounds simple, but that wasn't always the case.

    Q What are the key changes you've instituted?

    A We had dismal equity performance on the institutional side when I became CEO four years ago, so we changed the way we did things. At the core our guys were good stock pickers, but maybe not so good at portfolio construction. After reviewing what they'd been doing, we came to believe that stock selection is key. We decided that the (portfolio managers) should focus on their core skill of stock selection and neutralize everything else. When it came to sector and industry weightings, they needed to view the market benchmark. So now the portfolio managers just pick the stocks. We gave them software to help them figure out the weightings, and it's made a huge difference in the performance of all of our products. We also moved to relative performance and no longer equal weight stocks, which has also helped enormously.

    One of the less popular things I did was to hire several lawyers and add to accounting, operations and IT, because we needed to invest in the infrastructure. Even though the market was going down at that point, at the beginning of 2000, it was necessary to add people in those areas. Today, it's appreciated because we're a clean, tight ship.

    Q What other changes have you made?

    A We went through all our funds to decide if there was an audience for each, if they filled an investor need. In some cases where there was some duplication, we combined them. For example, we combined the growth and income fund with a value fund, and a healthcare fund with a biotech fund. We also now have a system where the people on the sector teams feed ideas and names to the core managers, which is a great way to manage teams.

    Q What challenges are you facing?

    A We still need to get the word out that our equity funds are doing well and that the organizational changes are behind us. We're a different, smaller organization today. We're around 20% smaller now with 200 employees compared with 250 four years ago. We also need to educate the retail world that we're more than just sector funds and that we have funds for all the different categories.

    An ongoing challenge is bridging the gap between our high-octane retail funds such as the NetNet fund and our conservative institutional funds, which make up 80% to 90% of our business. Because of the nature of sector funds, they can be hot or not.

    Q Do you manage money any more?

    A Yes. I run the currency models for the international bond fund and I'm on the team that manages the balanced fund. I never managed equities. Here we've gotten better at communication between the people managing equities and people running fixed; they now realize they have to look at the other side of the balance sheet and are doing it more.

    Q How involved are you in day-to-day operations?

    A I'm pretty involved. I attend investment meetings, client meetings. I need to be sure I spend a lot of time with clients. I talk with consultants, line up meetings and devote a fair amount of time to getting out our message, to let people know we're a new firm and that we shouldn't be in the penalty box. I did a client tour in 2000 and asked for patience, because if people are looking for relative performance, they want to see a track record. Now we've had four years of good numbers, which wasn't the case then.

    I also make it a point to tell clients to rebalance, when appropriate. I think it's the right thing to do and see it as part of my fiduciary responsibility. Doug Buckler, business manager of one client, Millwrights Union Local 1102, Detroit, last year thanked me at the Christmas party for our small-cap value fund, which went up 60% in 2003 and said he regretted not putting more money into it. But I told him that they should rebalance and take some off the table because the whole portfolio didn't go up 60%.

    Maintaining the culture of the organization is also important. We have a unique culture here, confrontational in a constructive way so that we exchange ideas but don't take potshots. We want ideas challenged in a constructive way — it's sort of a devil's advocate mindset.

    Q How have you been dealing with the mutual fund scandals?

    A Keeping market timers out of the fund complex is a challenge. There is just so much you can do, such as imposing back-end fees if people don't hold the funds a minimum number of days. But at the end of the day, if investors start skirting those rules, we need to kick them out of the funds. We've also spent a fair amount beefing up our internal compliance, adding a person in legal, another in accounting and adding two more lawyers. We're also giving education courses to employees to be sure they understand what they can and can't do. ... We encourage them to invest in our funds, but before they do, they must be cleared by the appropriate mutual fund board, and none of those boards have members from management.

    correcton appended

    Recommended for You
    Read the print edition of P&I
    Read the print edition of P&I
    How low is low? Projections say it's not low enough
    How low is low? Projections say it's not low enough
    FINRA honors Wharton's Olivia Mitchell with Ketchum Prize
    FINRA honors Wharton's Olivia Mitchell with Ketchum Prize
    New SEC Rule on Fair Pricing Determination Needs Careful Consideration
    Sponsored Content: New SEC Rule on Fair Pricing Determination Needs Careful Consideration

    Reader Poll

    June 6, 2022
    SEE MORE POLLS >
    Sponsored
    White Papers
    Nearing the finish line: Ideas on end-state investing for corporate DB plans
    The Meaning of "Portfolio Intelligence"
    Credit Indices: Closing the Fixed Income Evolutionary Gap
    Forever in Style: Benchmarking with the Morningstar® Broad Style Indexes℠
    Crossroads: Politics, Inflation, & Bonds
    Is there a mid-cap gap in your DC plan?
    View More
    Sponsored Content
    Partner Content
    The Industrialization of ESG Investment
    For institutional investors, ETFs can make meeting liquidity needs easier
    Gold: the most effective commodity investment
    2021 Investment Outlook | Investing Beyond the Pandemic: A Reset for Portfolios
    Ten ways retirement plan professionals add value to plan sponsors
    Gold: an efficient hedge
    View More
    E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS

    Sign up and get the best of News delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    Subscribe Today
    July 4, 2022 page one

    Get access to the news, research and analysis of events affecting the retirement and institutional money management businesses from a worldwide network of reporters and editors.

    Subscribe
    Connect With Us
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn

    Our Mission

    To consistently deliver news, research and analysis to the executives who manage the flow of funds in the institutional investment market.

    About Us

    Main Office
    685 Third Avenue
    Tenth Floor
    New York, NY 10017-4036

    Chicago Office
    130 E. Randolph St.
    Suite 3200
    Chicago, IL 60601

    Contact Us

    Careers at Crain

    About Pensions & Investments

     

    Advertising
    • Media Kit
    • P&I Content Solutions
    • P&I Careers | Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    Resources
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • FAQ
    • P&I Research Center
    • Site map
    • Staff Directory
    Legal
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Request
    Pensions & Investments
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • Topics
      • Alternatives
      • Consultants
      • Coronavirus
      • Courts
      • Defined Contribution
      • ESG
      • ETFs
      • Hedge Funds
      • Industry Voices
      • Investing
      • Money Management
      • Opinion
      • Partner Content
      • Pension Funds
      • Private Equity
      • Real Estate
      • Russia-Ukraine War
      • SECURE Act 2.0
      • Special Reports
      • White Papers
    • Rankings & Awards
      • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
      • Top-Performing Managers
      • Largest Money Managers
      • DC Money Managers
      • DC Record Keepers
      • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
      • World's Largest Retirement Funds
      • Best Places to Work in Money Management
      • Excellence & Innovation Awards
      • WPS Innovation Awards
      • Eddy Awards
    • ETFs
      • Latest ETF News
      • Fund Screener
      • Education Center
      • Equities
      • Fixed Income
      • Commodities
      • Actively Managed
      • Alternatives
      • ESG Rated
    • ESG
      • Latest ESG News
      • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
      • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
      • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
      • Impact Investing
      • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
      • ESG Rated ETFs
    • Defined Contribution
      • Latest DC News
      • DC Money Manager Rankings
      • DC Record Keeper Rankings
      • Innovations in DC
      • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
      • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
      • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
    • Searches & Hires
      • Latest Searches & Hires News
      • Searches & Hires Database
      • RFPs
    • Performance Data
      • P&I Research Center
      • Earnings Tracker
      • Endowment Returns Tracker
      • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
      • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
      • Pension Risk Transfer Database
      • Future of Investments Research Series
      • Charts & Infographics
      • Polls
    • Careers
    • Events
      • View All Conferences
      • View All Webinars
      • 2022 Retirement Income Conference
      • 2022 Managing Pension Risk & Liabilities
      • 2022 WorldPensionSummit