OREANDA-NEWS. Russell Investments has combined its institutional and intermediary defined contribution (DC) teams under the oversight of Josh Cohen and J.T. Young, managing directors, defined contribution. Cohen and Young will jointly lead the growing defined contribution team to capture the growth opportunities across all DC market segments. Partnering on the day-to-day management of the DC business, Cohen and Young will work with plan sponsors, consultants, advisors, record keepers, and key partners to bring institutional-quality DC solutions to U.S. retirement plans, including multi-manager funds solutions, custom target date funds and Russell Adaptive Retirement Accounts (ARA).

“Russell Investments is committed to the DC business, and our creation of a high-powered DC team along with the addition of more dedicated senior-level expertise is a clear demonstration of that fact,” said Greg Gilbert, CEO, Americas Institutional. “The industry is growing, as is our DC business, and we are aligning our resources to be well positioned to continue to drive forward momentum. In fact, in the first quarter of 2016, our U.S. DC business alone is outpacing last year’s U.S. DC-specific AUM growth by about 13%.”

Young joins the DC team with nearly 20 years of industry experience and was previously responsible for the mid-market OCIO team as well as marketing and product development in Russell Investments' U.S. institutional business. He has also held leadership roles in Russell Investments’ U.S. advisor-sold business as well as the firm’s EMEA business. He will now be focused exclusively on the development and growth of the DC business across all channels, in partnership with widely-recognized DC industry expert Cohen.

Another senior-level addition to the newly combined team is Nathan Dudley, director, defined contribution and a 23-year industry veteran, who most recently led institutional product development in the U.S. Dudley has extensive investment and implementation expertise and will have primary responsibility for managing and implementing Russell Investments’ ARA platform.

Kevin Knowles has been promoted to associate director, defined contribution, and in his new role will assume expanded responsibilities for the methodology, positioning and distribution of DC products, including ARA. Knowles will work closely with Dudley to continue the seamless rollout of the ARA platform to new clients.

Andrew Scherer, director, defined contribution, and his team will continue to focus on managing relationships with DC recordkeeping platforms and working with sales and service teams responsible for delivering institutional-quality DC solutions to retirement plan intermediaries and strategic distribution partners.

About Russell Investments

Russell Investments, a global asset manager, is one of only a few firms that offers actively managed multi-asset portfolios and services which include advice, investments and implementation. Russell Investments stands with institutional investors, financial advisors and individuals working with their advisors—using the firm’s core capabilities that extend across capital market insights, manager research, asset allocation, portfolio implementation and factor exposures to help each achieve their desired investment outcomes.

Russell Investments has more than $241 billion in assets under management (as of 12/31/2015) and works with more than 2,500 institutional clients, independent distribution partners and individual investors globally. As a consultant to some of the largest pools of capital in the world, Russell Investments has $2.2 trillion in assets under advisement (as of 6/30/2015). The firm has four decades of experience researching and selecting investment managers and meets annually with more than 2,200 managers around the world. Russell Investments also traded more than $1.7 trillion in 2014 through its implementation services business.

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Russell Investments is wholly owned by London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and operates globally, including through its offices in Seattle, New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Dubai, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Toronto, Chicago and Milwaukee.