NET RETURN HAS DOUBLE MEANING FOR NEW MORNINGSTAR PRESIDENT

Everything that Timothy Armour needs to know for his new job as president of Morningstar Inc., he learned by marketing Jell-O and Kool-Aid for General Foods Corp. Well, almost.

Mr. Armour, 50, is charged with delivering what the customers want and helping to transform the Chicago fund tracker into an Internet company. It’s a natural for the onetime product manager, who has also put in stints as senior vice president of marketing for Citibank in Chicago and, until last April, as president of Stein Roe Mutual Funds.

“We have a company with a wonderful brand, great franchise and good products,” says Mr. Armour, who joined the company last spring as chief operating officer. If you look at successful Internet companies “the difference hasn’t been better technology but better marketing.”

Mr. Armour’s promotion is part of a broader reassignment of responsibilities among Morningstar executives. The expressed purpose of the change is to strengthen management and consolidate similar functions.

Directing Internet efforts

Previously focused on internal operations, Mr. Armour now oversees the company’s relationship with its diverse base of institutional, professional and individual investors. Among his duties in the new position: directing the firm’s Internet, marketing and product support efforts.

Meanwhile, some of Mr. Armour’s former responsibilities are being redirected. Gary Burge, chief financial officer, adds information systems to his purview. Catherine Gillis Odelbo, the senior vice president of content in charge of the editorial products, takes over the data function. In turn, Mr. Armour takes over publication marketing duties she once held.

“It’s a shuffling, but I think it makes sense,” says Don Phillips, 37, Morningstar’s chief executive.

Splitting up the publication functions is particularly important for maintaining an image of integrity for Morningstar as it increasingly pitches services and products to the mutual fund companies.

“We want to make sure that the editorial is distinct from the marketing and sales effort,” Mr. Phillips says.

On passing along his former title of president to Mr. Armour, Mr. Phillips says: “He’s in the marketplace. It signals to the outside world how important he is.”

Financial advisers are one customer base Mr. Armour plans to court. Morningstar moved in this direction earlier this year by hiring Sue Stevens as its financial planning specialist (InvestmentNews, April 26). In that position, she’s responsible for developing products and services for advisers.

On its way is a web-based version of Principia, the Morningstar planning software used by advisers, Mr. Armour says.

“We’re looking for ways to move this capability onto the web so it will be more timely and useful,” Mr. Armour explains. “It’s inexorable. It’s a matter of executing it.”

Peter Crist, a headhunter who placed Mr. Armour at Citibank in the late 1980s, says the new president has the tools Morningstar needs as it looks to grow.

“He’s a very good marketer, a very good external guy,” says Mr. Crist, president of the Chicago executive search firm Crist Partners. “The naming of him as president, as far as I can see, is a natural evolution.”

Morningstar denies that the promotion points to a long-expected public offering by Morningstar. Still, with an executive like Mr. Armour, the fund tracker is in a good position to grow in any number of directions, Mr. Crist says.

“In five years will Morningstar be a public company serving consumers and institutional investors?” Mr. Crist asks. In Mr. Armour “they got a guy who has terrific marketing skills, which is what they need.”