PEOPLE: B. ROBERT KOSROVANI AND EUGENE L. PODSIADLO — WARBURG-CREDIT SUISSE VENTURE PAIRS RETAIL FUND START-UP PROS

Eugene L. Podsiadlo and B. Robert Kosrovani are no strangers to building a mutual fund business virtually from scratch. But the two executives had never crossed paths until a month ago when their respective companies began discussing an unusual joint venture.

“We get on well,” says Mr. Kosrovani in a light British accent.

They had better — their firms are counting heavily on them.

Early this month Credit Suisse Asset Management, where Mr. Kosrovani oversees global retail distribution, and Warburg Pincus Funds, where Mr. Podsiadlo is president, formed a new company — as yet unnamed — that will market each partner’s mutual funds. The two executives are overseeing the effort together, along with two other directors from each company’s board.

They hope they can improve upon similar attempts by other fund firms over the years. “Joint ventures — as a category — don’t have a good track record,” acknowledges Mr. Kosrovani. “In this case, there really is a good fit.”

Their efforts are likely to be closely scrutinized. Foreign firms seeking a U.S. presence and U.S. companies longing to go overseas will likely form similar arrangements as the cost of merging or acquiring increases, says mutual fund consultant Geoffrey Bobroff of East Greenwich, R.I.

“This is an interesting one that I will watch closely,” he says.

Mr. Podsiadlo says a merger was discussed at the outset of negotiations but dismissed by his firm’s parent, which insists on remaining privately held. Warburg Pincus Funds, a unit of Warburg Pincus Asset Management in New York, oversees $11 billion in mutual fund assets in 35 portfolios. Known for its value-oriented approach, it has brand recognition with financial advisers and in the 401(k) retirement plan market. But the firm has a marginal presence abroad. That’s where Credit Suisse comes in.

The Credit Suisse name is well known in the United Kingdom and Japan, and Warburg can now use it with investors there to market Brian Posner, for instance. Warburg snared the star fund manager from Fidelity Investments a little over a year ago to run its growth-and-income portfolio.

a worldwide market

Credit Suisse, which oversees $42 billion in mutual fund assets worldwide, manages pension plans in the United States but has little retail presence here. Now, under the Warburg name, it can market its international funds along with domestic growth funds and a U.S. junk bond fund that Mr. Podsiadlo plans to pitch to advisers.

Unlike the executives, the two firms were not complete strangers before negotiations began. Warburg has been selling Credit Suisse funds to 401(k) clients for several years.

Mr. Kosrovani, 47, came to Credit Suisse in May — several months after leaving Alliance Capital Management LLP. He oversaw the development of the New York mutual fund firm’s offshore business, which on his watch grew to about $6.6 billion in assets under management from $400 million, he says.

Though he terms his departure “amicable,” he left in October after management made a change in its approach to offshore business development that he “disagreed with strongly.”

A native of New York City, Mr. Kosrovani grew up in England and will return there to work out of Credit Suisse Asset Management’s London headquarters.

Mr. Podsiadlo, 41, joined Warburg — then a staid venture capital firm — in 1991 after a six-year stint at Citicorp helping develop its Landmark mutual funds. He was brought in as the architect of Warburg’s retail mutual funds, and some executives balked at his efforts to advertise and raise the firm’s profile.

Mr. Podsiadlo jokes, “I was considered a heretic.”