BNY Mellon snags BlackRock exec to replace O’Hanley

As expected, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. has gone outside its ranks to find a new boss for its asset management group.

BNY Mellon today named BlackRock executive Curtis Arledge as CEO of its asset management unit. Mr. Arledge is scheduled to join BNY Mellon in the fourth quarter and will report to CEO Robert P. Kelly. He takes over a role left vacant by the departure of Ronald O’Hanley in May.

On July 27, InvestmentNews reported that BNY Mellon would likely turn to an external candidate to fill the post. That assertion was based on conversations with industry sources.

Mr. Arledge’s hiring wraps up an interesting three months at BNY Mellon Asset Management. In May, Mr. O’Hanley exited the unit to take the role of president of asset management at Boston-based Fidelity Investments.

Following Mr. O’Hanley’s departure, BNY Mellon tapped Jonathan Little, then vice chairman of the bank’s asset management unit, and Mitchell Harris, chairman of the fixed-income, cash and currency group, to run the asset management group on an interim basis.

But on July 27, BNY Mellon announced that Mr. Little was leaving, with a published report indicating the veteran BNY Mellon exec was joining Kedge Capital. BNY Mellon then announced that Mr. Harris would serve as sole ‘interim’ head of the bank’s asset management unit.

The fact that Mr. Harris only retained the job on an interim basis prompted speculation that the firm was going to go outside the company to fill Mr. O’Hanley’s position. Sources familiar with the situation told InvestmentNews that Mr. Little and Mr. Harris were the two internal candidates up for the job.

The newly hired Mr. Arledge, 45, worked as a portfolio manager at BlackRock from 1988 to 1993, and returned in 2008. In between, he spent 12 years at Wachovia Corp., where he eventually became global head of fixed income. His tenure there coincided with that of Mr. Kelly, who became head of BNY Mellon in 2007.

Mr. Harris will stay on and report to Mr. Arledge, according to a statement from BNY Mellon.

BlackRock indicated today that Rick Rieder will replace Mr. Arledge as chief investment officer of the firm’s fixed-income unit.

Mr. Rieder, 49, joined BlackRock in 2009 after the firm took over the management of R3 Capital Management LLC, a hedge fund specializing in fixed-income. Previously, he worked at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

BNY Mellon is the world’s biggest custody bank. Asset management is becoming a larger part of its business, however. Indeed, through the first half of the year, asset management generated 20% of the bank’s revenue.

[Bloomberg News contributed to this report]

Related Topics: Bank Of New York Mellon Corp., BlackRock Inc.