TIAA-CREF [profile] president and CEO Roger Ferguson is hunting for a new asset management chief. Bloomberg and Dow Jones both report that Scott Evans, executive vice president and head of asset management, is leaving the firm after 27 years.

No date has been set for the departure of Evans, 52, from the teacher-focused retirement plan provider, which boasts $440.7 billion in assets under management. That, according to Morningstar, included $37 billion in TIAA-CREF mutual funds as of the end of 2011.

"Scott will continue to work with us to ensure a smooth transition as we conduct a search for his successor," TIAA-CREF spokeswoman Abby Cohen told both wire services.

Cohen added that she and her colleagues "thank Scott for his many contributions and respect his decision to spend more time with his family.”

Meanwhile, Ferguson and his team already have a second top spot to fill. The New York-based firm revealed in November that chief investment officer Ed Grzybowski will step down in March.

Morningstar senior mutual fund analyst Christopher Davis offered Dow Jones his two cents on the moves. Davis said that he's not worried about the departures, pointing to Evans' and Grzybowski's long tenures with TIAA-CREF and with the firm's recent improvements in mutual fund performance. 

Edited by: HFD


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