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15
Morningstar FundInvestor
February 2
015
International-Stock Fund Manager of the Year
Dodge & Cox International Stock
DODFX
This is an exemplary team from an exemplary firm.
Dodge
&
Cox has rolled out only six strategies
since it opened its doors during the Great Depression.
Each fund is run collaboratively by an invesment-
policy committee, including this one, and some
members of this nine-person team also serve on the
committees that direct other Dodge
&
Cox funds.
Those funds, like this one, have put together impres-
sive long-term records. The managers on the
International Investment Policy Committee are highly
experienced, to say the least. Every member of
the team has been at the firm for more than a decade,
and the average tenure is
24
years. Most have
also spent their entire careers at the firm. The team
won this award back in
2004
with five of the current
nine members.
Fixed-Income Fund Manager of the Year
Ken Leech, Carl Eichstaedt, and Mark Lindbloom of
Western Asset Core Bond
WACSX
and
Western
Asset Core Plus Bond
WAPSX
This year’s fixed-income award winner is a comeback
story. The team underperformed during the financial
crisis, revealing some flaws in its credit research,
ineffective risk oversight, and poor communication
between the firm’s macro and fundamental research
teams. Since then, a number of improvements
have been made to the investment process and risk
management, and resources have been strength-
ened across the board. From
2009
through
2014
, the
team has guided both funds to topnotch records.
Western Asset Core Bond and Western Asset Core
Plus Bond land in the top quartile of the interme-
diate-term bond category for the trailing five- and
10
-year periods ended Dec.
31
. This is a great example
of managers who learned something from a crisis, ad-
dressed the problems, and moved forward successfully.
Allocation Fund Manager of the Year
Anne Lester and Team of
JPM
organ SmartRetirement
Target-Date Series
This is the first time we’ve recognized a manager
of a target-date series. It’s about time. As the invest-
ment vehicle of choice (or by default) for retirement-
plan savers, target dates are now the largest type of
allocation funds, with more than
$700
billion in assets
and around
$50
billion of inflows last year.
Alternatives Fund Manager of the Year
Robert Jones and Ali Motamed of
Boston Partners
Long/Short Equity
BPLSX
It probably comes as no surprise that we don’t have a
very big universe of alternatives managers that have
Morningstar Analyst Ratings of Gold, Silver, or Bronze.
That’s because most mutual funds that pursue alterna-
tive strategies have relatively short records. This
year’s winner, however, is one of the longest-tenured
managers in the alternative mutual funds space.
Robert Jones took over Boston Partners Long/Short
Equity in
2004
, when the strategy was overhauled
to its current approach. Ali Motamed was promoted
to the named management team in
2013
.
American Hires T. Rowe Bond Chief
Mike Gitlin, who has headed T. Rowe Price’s fixed-
income team since
2009
, is leaving the firm as of
Jan.
23
,
2015
. Gitlin,
44
, has accepted a role with the
fixed-income team at Los Angeles-based Capital
Group (advisor to the American Funds), where he’ll be
a partner. His successor is Ted Wiese, a
30
-year
T. Rowe veteran who’s run
T. Rowe Price Short-Term
Bond
PRWBX
, which has a Morningstar Analyst
Rating of Silver, since
1995
.
The unexpected departure is a loss for T. Rowe. Fixed
income has become increasingly important to the
firm in recent years as it tries to better balance out its
domestic-equity-heavy fund lineup. Under Gitlin’s
leadership, T. Rowe’s headcount on the fixed-income
team grew to
76
in
2014
from
33
in
2007
, with par-
ticular emphasis on adding quantitative resources and
building an emerging-markets corporate-debt team
from scratch.
Unlike Wiese, Gitlin did not have experience running
money before taking the job, which was a deviation
from most of T. Rowe’s top executives. He also was
not a T. Rowe lifer, as many executives at the firm are,
joining in
2007
as global head of trading after holding
sales and trading roles at Citigroup and Credit Suisse.
Yet he proved to be a strong people manager and
effective leader during his tenure.
K