UniCredit and Pioneer Investments today announced that Sandro Pierri will be stepping down from his post as CEO of Pioneer Investments effective January 31, 2015. Giordano Lombardo will ensure continuity of leadership for Pioneer’s business during this phase. Mr. Lombardo has been with Pioneer for over 17 years, during which time he has been responsible for developing and leading Pioneer’s global investment management platform, currently serving as Deputy CEO and Group Chief Investment Officer.
Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of UniCredit, said, “I would like to thank Sandro for his many contributions to Pioneer over the last eleven years, and especially during his two and a half years as CEO. Pioneer produced excellent investment results and robust net inflows owing to Sandro’s strategic focus and disciplined execution. The past two years have seen Pioneer’s standing as a leading global asset manager reaffirmed, supported by outstanding investment performance and approximately €24 billion of cumulative net inflows. I wish him the very best in his future endeavors, and am confident that he leaves Pioneer extremely well positioned.”
Mr. Ghizzoni continued, “I am fully confident that Giordano and the rest of Pioneer’s management team will continue to effectively manage the business and support Pioneer’s clients and associates around the world. They have my full support.”
Sandro Pierri commented: “I want to thank Federico and UniCredit, as well as the Board of Pioneer Global Asset Management, for giving me the opportunity to lead Pioneer for the past two and a half years. We have, thanks to a fantastic team effort, outperformed our initial goals and helped Pioneer to produce strong investment performance and record levels of net inflows, and Pioneer is now in an incredibly strong position. I will always think very fondly of my time at Pioneer and wish nothing but the best for Pioneer and its people going forward.”
Banco Santander said on September that it was in talks to potentially combine its asset management arm in a joint venture with Pioneer Global Asset Management. The deal, if consumated, would create an asset manager with 347 billion euros, or about $568.2 billion, in assets under management and operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The leadership change announced today by Pioneer Investments could well be related with these conversations.
In 2013 Santander entered into an alliance that gave the private equity firms Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic a 50 percent stake in its asset management operations.
For Elena Santiso
For Funds Society, Madrid