Two high-level Russell Investments executives are leaving the company, the Tacoma-based investment advisory firm acknowledged today.
Frank Ryan, the company’s chief financial officer and a member of its board, will leave Russell at the end of June, said Russell spokeswoman Jennifer Tice. Ryan, who was in London today and unavailable for comment, will return to the San Francisco area, where his family lives.
Ryan, who has worked for Russell for two years, has commuted to Tacoma every week from the Bay area, where he spends his weekends.
Also leaving Russell is chief of staff Terry Berland. Berland, contacted at his office, declined to comment on his departure. He will leave the investment advisory firm at the end of the week.
Berland is reportedly returning to the East Coast where he worked before joining Russell nine months ago. Berland will join an East Coast hedge fund, sources said.
He joined Russell in 2009 from Barclay’s Capital in New York where he was in charge of global purchasing.
Berland’s responsibilities at Russell include strategy, corporate development, marketing, branding, public relations, communications and corporate-level program management.
Ryan was formerly managing director and chief financial officer for Barclays Global Investors. Before joining Barclays, Ryan was managing director and executive vice president of Bank of America.
The chief financial officer will spend part of his time between now and the end of June recruiting his replacement, said Tice.
The two are among a string of upper and middle managers who’ve left Russell in recent years as the company adjusts to the effects of the recession and repositions its business under new chief executive Andrew Doman.
Russell last year took major staff cuts and announced its intention to move its headquarters from Tacoma, where it was founded in 1936 to Seattle. Its parent company, Northwestern Mutual, has bought the former Washington Mutual headquarters building there from JPMorgan Chase. That skyscraper will be Russell’s new headquarters edifice.
Russell employees learned of the two executives’ departure through an internal memo.