Threadneedle Investments (Threadneedle), a leading international asset manager, has announced the appointments of Diane Sobin, Fund Manager, and Nafis Chowdhury, Analyst, to the firm’s US Equities team. Both Diane and Nafis will report to Cormac Weldon, Head of US Equities, and will be based in London.
Diane joins Threadneedle on 12 September from Columbia Management, a fellow asset management subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial, where she is a New-York based Portfolio Manager for US equities. Diane has had a 28 year career, specialising more recently in value portfolio management of US equities. She joined Columbia Management in 2001, and co-managed large and mid-cap value mutual funds and institutional portfolios.
Nafis joined Threadneedle on 25 July from Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division, where he was an analyst in the UK Mergers & Acquisitions team gaining a broad range of M&A, restructuring, credit and equity experience.
The appointments bring Threadneedle’s US Equities team to a total of eight, with three fund managers and five analysts. The team works closely with Threadneedle’s other investment teams through its collaborative investment process. Threadneedle manages over £7bn in US equities. By value of assets, 100% of its North American OEICs, SICAVs and pooled pension funds have outperformed their peers or benchmarks over 3 and 5 years, and 88% of these funds have outperformed over 1 year (to end May 2011).
Cormac Weldon , Head of US Equities, commented: “We are pleased to have Diane joining us from Columbia Management. She has a proven track record in managing US equities funds with a focus on value management. We take a team-based approach to fund management, with a culture of open discussion, debate and sharing of ideas, and I’m confident that Diane and Nafis will provide valuable input to this process.”