Quant managers move to Morgan Stanley

Kathy O'Connor and Jeff Sanders joined Morgan Stanley Investment Management as managing directors and quantitative value equity portfolio managers, said spokeswoman Andrea Slattery. The positions are new. They will specialize in quantitative small-cap, midcap and large-cap value strategies. The two previously worked at New York Life Investment Management, where they were managing directors and portfolio managers of the Mainstay Small, Mid and Large Cap Opportunity funds, with more than $3 billion in retail, institutional and high-net-worth assets, according to an internal MSIM memo. Joan Sabella, a director with NYLIM's quant-focused equity investors group and portfolio manager of the EIG Balanced Strategy, will oversee the funds on an interim basis, NYLIM spokesman John Puccio said. NYLIM is in the midst of "substantive conversations with well-qualified replacements," he said. Ms. Sabella came to NYLIM in 2000 with Ms. O'Connor and Mr. Sanders, when the firm acquired Towneley Capital Management.