Christopher Leavy was named chief investment officer of U.S. fundamental equity at BlackRock, effective Nov. 1, confirmed BlackRock spokeswoman Bobbie Collins.
Mr. Leavy will oversee $150 billion in assets in the new position. He will report to Quintin Price, BlackRock’s global CIO of fundamental equity.
Mr. Leavy was CIO of equities at OppenheimerFunds, overseeing both investments and business strategy for that firm’s $80 billion equity business.
Art Steinmetz was named CIO at OppenheimerFunds, a new position combining Mr. Leavy’s responsibilities with Mr. Steinmetz’s current duties as CIO of fixed income. He assumes the post immediately, according to an announcement by OppenheimerFunds.
Also, George Evans, a senior vice president and director of international equities at OppenheimerFunds, was named director of equities, assuming oversight of all of the firm’s equity investment teams, and Krishna Memani, senior vice president, was named director, fixed income. Mr. Steinmetz couldn’t immediately be reached for further comment.
In an interview, Mr. Steinmetz said Messrs. Evans and Memani, in their new investment-focused director roles, will be the “guardians of the investment processes” for the various teams under their purview. Areas such as strategic direction, product development and administrative matters will fall to the CIO, he said.
