Northwestern Mutual Hires Genworth's Chief Investment Officer as Its CIO
May 2, 2012 by Fran Matso Lysiak
Best’s News Service – May 01, 2012 01:56 PM
MILWAUKEE – Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. is hiring the chief investment officer at Genworth Financial Inc. as its next CIO while Genworth named a replacement for its departing CIO.
Northwestern Mutual said Ron Joelson, CIO at Genworth (NYSE: GNW), will join the company on June 4. He will succeed Mark Doll, who’s retiring June 30 after 40 years with Northwestern Mutual. Joelson spent most of his career at Prudential Financial (NYSE: PRU).
Succeeding Joelson as Genworth’s CIO and senior vice president on April 30 was Daniel J. Sheehan IV. Sheehan, formerly senior vice president of asset management, reports to Michael D. Fraizer, chairman and chief executive officer at Genworth.
As senior vice president of asset management, Sheehan oversaw the performance of Genworth’s insurance investment portfolios, including corporates, structured investments, real estate and trading. He worked at Genworth since its initial public offering in 2004, and before that, with its former parent, General Electric Co.
A spokesperson for the Richmond, Va.-based Genworth declined to comment beyond the company’s press release. Sheehan “has been instrumental in helping to reposition and reduce certain risk exposures in the portfolio, and he has a strong knowledge of Genworth’s businesses,” Fraizer said in a statement.
In March, A.M. Best Co. assigned a debt rating of bbb to the newly issued $350 million 7.625% senior unsecured notes due 2021 issued by Genworth Financial. Its negative outlook continued to reflect the potential downside risk associated with the U.S. mortgage insurance segment (Best’s News Service, March 9, 2012).
Following the issuance, A.M. Best noted the small impact to Genworth’s pro forma adjusted debt-to-capital and interest coverage. Although interest coverage is slightly below what A.M. Best would prefer for this rating level, the roughly $1 billion of excess capital at the holding company mitigates this concern (Best’s News Service, March 9, 2012).
During his 23 years at Prudential, Joelson held several positions, culminating as senior vice president and CIO — asset liability and risk management, Northwestern Mutual said. In that role, he oversaw investment strategy and portfolio performance for Prudential’s $230 billion general account.
A spokesperson for the Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual also declined to comment.
Doll has served as Northwestern Mutual’s CIO since June 2008, where he oversaw the investment strategy and managed the company’s $164 billion general account portfolio, which backs the company’s surplus and its insurance and annuities.
A.M. Best recently noted Northwestern Mutual’s sizable and mature participating ordinary life insurance franchise, consistently positive operating performance and superior risk-adjusted capitalization. Although Northwestern Mutual maintains the number one market share position in individual life as measured by new business annualized premiums, A.M. Best noted it remains a highly saturated marketplace with many companies competing for the same affluent market customers (Best’s News Service, April 27, 2012).
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. currently has a Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A++ (Superior).
Genworth Life Insurance Co. currently has a Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent).
(By Fran Matso Lysiak, senior associate editor, BestWeek: fran.lysiak@ambest.com) BN-NJ-05-01-2012 1356 ET #
