DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Fidelity Investments named Anthony W. Ryan to head the firm's
asset-management strategy and product-development unit on
Friday.
The appointment is the latest personnel move for Fidelity
Investments, which recently removed several portfolio managers
whose funds stumbled badly in 2008.
A company representative said Ryan was assuming a newly created
position.
The mutual fund firm, which invests most of its assets in common
stocks, said Ryan will be responsible for long-term investment
strategies as well as developing and coordinating
investment-management product offerings.
At the end of 2008, assets in Fidelity's equity funds had
dropped 46% to $395.9 billion from $730 billion a year earlier,
according to research firm Morningstar Inc. Fidelity fared far
better with its bond and money-market funds.
Ryan served as acting undersecretary for domestic finance for
the U.S. Treasury Department during the last months of the
administration of President George W. Bush and first joined the
Treasury Department in 2006.
Ryan held leadership positions in the investment management
industry over the previous 20 years, working for State Street
Corp.'s (STT) institutional investment management arm and as a
manager of Global Investments at PanAgora Asset Management.
Fidelity Investments had custodied assets of $2.6 trillion,
including managed assets of more than $1.2 trillion as of Dec. 31.
Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning,
brokerage and human resources services.
-By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5285;
john.kell@dowjones.com