Mitchell Harris, chief executive officer of Pareto Partners, New York, has been named CEO of Standish Mellon Financial, Boston, following Mellon's announcement today that it will acquire the 70% of Pareto it doesn't own. Mr. Harris succeeds William Adam, who will become chairman until he retires at the end of the year. Ted Ladd, current Standish Mellon chairman, will become chairman emeritus. At Pareto, Mr. Harris will become non-executive chairman, a new position, with Michael Shilling, Pareto's head of portfolio services, succeeding him as CEO.
Separately, Dan Roberts, chief investment officer and head of Pareto's high-yield portfolio management team, will join MacKay Shields LLC, New York as a senior managing director. Pareto sold its high-yield asset management businesses to MacKay in a separate transaction announced today. Michael Kimble, Taylor Wagenseil and Louis Cohen - Mr. Roberts' Pareto colleagues - will join as directors. MacKay reportedly is negotiating with several other high-yield team members.
Ronald Layard-Liesching, a founding partner at Pareto and the firm's chief research officer and head of currency strategies, will succeed Mr. Roberts as CIO while retaining his previous duties.