MutualFundWire.com: Meet the Conductor of a $1.2T Orchestra

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Friday, July 26, 2019

Meet the Conductor of a $1.2T Orchestra

The 58-year-old chief of a publicly traded insurer's multinational, multi-boutique, $1.2-trillion-AUM asset management arm is on the hunt.

David A. Hunt
PGIM
President, CEO

"There are plenty of capabilities we don't have right now," David Hunt, CEO of Prudential's PGIM [profile], tells Financial News. Yet Hunt cautions that "there is always a lot of talk but less deals than people expect, largely because it is a people business and you have to make sure the cultural fit is right."

The interview with Hunt covers a host of topics, including:

asset class balance: "What you are seeing is the historic alternatives players getting into the long-only space and the long-only guys trying to build as fast as they can in alternatives. We are already there with that balance";

PGIM's multi-boutique model (eight boutiques and counting), which he likens to an orchestra with him as conductor: "We think the people and culture you need to run a real estate business, a quant business and a fundamental equities business are pretty different. Not surprisingly, we have different organisation structures and compensation structures to support those";

the firm's growth in Europe: for example, to 264 in London now, up from 160 in 2016; and

the rise of passive investing: "This whole debate has been mischaracterised."