Jenny Johnson has found her a new distribution chief for Franklin Templeton, and he hails from the other side of the publicly traded asset management titan's pending acquisition.

Adam Benjamin Spector Brandywine Global Investment Management Managing Partner

On Monday, Johnson confirmed that Philadelphia-based Adam Spector will take over as executive vice president and head of global distribution (both retail and institutional, and including marketing and product strategy) for San Mateo, California-based Franklin Templeton on October 1 ... assuming the planned Franklin Resources (dba Franklin Templeton) purchase, of Baltimore-based Legg Mason, closes this Friday as expected. Spector currently serves as managing partner of Brandywine Global Investment Management, a $63-billion-AUM boutique within Legg Mason.

Spector will succeed Jed Plafker, who last month shifted into the newly created role of executive vice president of global alliances and new business strategies. Plafker and Johnson are co-leading distribution in the interim, until Spector takes over.

According to the Franklin team, Spector will keep his Brandywine leadership role, too, when he takes over Franklin's distribution efforts. He will report to Johnson, president and CEO of Franklin. And Spector's team, in turn, will be divided into four regions (U.S., Asia Pacific, EMEA, and the Americas outside the U.S.), with regional heads reporting up to Spector.

Johnson lauds Spector as "a veteran business and distribution leader" and notes that Spector has "strong knowledge of and relationships with Legg Mason's specialist investment managers."

"He will be responsible for leading our new regionalized distribution model with the goal of heightening responsiveness to opportunities at the local level, while strengthening Franklin Templeton's ability to bring the full breadth of our global investment expertise closer to the client," Johnson states.

Spector, an alumnus of UPenn's Wharton School and of Brown University, has spent more than 23 years with Brandywine. Prior to that he worked with SEI and Ameritek. 

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