A 26-year Putnam veteran is preparing to pass a C-suite spot to a familiar 23-year company veteran next year.

On Thursday, Aaron Cooper, chief operating officer of Putnam Investments [profile], confirms that Michael Salm, managing director and fixed income portfolio manager, has been promoted to co-chief investment officer for fixed income and will take over as the sole fixed income CIO in the middle of 2021. Bill Kohli, who had served as the sole fixed income CIO and now serves as co-CIO alongside Salm, will retire on June 30, 2021.

Putnam currently has more than $75 billion in fixed income AUM across institutional, retail, and retirement clients. (That translates into about 42 percent of Putnam's more than $180 billion in total AUM as of August 31.) They use a team-based, multi-PM approach.

Cooper lauds Kohli for providing "tremendous leadership and vision" over the past quarter century. And Cooper describes Salm as "a deeply experience, savvy investor and thought leader who has worked closely with Bill for many years and is ideally suited to carry on Putnam's strong fixed income legacy."

"While excited for my next chapter, I am proud and honored to have represented Putnam for the past 25-plus years and feel privileged to have been associated with my professional colleagues, investors and clients," Kohli states. "I have total confidence in Mike's ability to lead Fixed Income and look forward to our continuing partnership in the coming months."

Salm, an alumnus of Cornell University, joined Putnam in 1997. Prior to that he worked with BlackRock, Nomura Securities, Nikko Securities, and Fitch Investor Services.

Kohli, an alumnus of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and of UC San Diego, joined Putnam in 1994. In 2011, Kohli and Salm rose to co-heads of fixed income (alongside Paul Scanlon), and Kohli rose to fixed income CIO in 2016. Before joining Putnam, he worked at what is now Franklin Templeton. 

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