GERMANY - Wolfram Gerdes, joint chief investment officer of Allianz Global Investors’ Global Vision product, has left the company to succeed Cominvest Asset Management’s CIO, Wolfgang Plum.

Gerdes left Allianz Global Investors, formerly known as Allianz Dresdner Asset Management, at the end of the year.

He has been succeeded by Eric Barthalon, a member of Allianz’s global policy committee and Peter Lockyer, head of portfolio risk and performance.

Barthalon and Lockyer are also members of the multi-asset team, led by Lee Thomas, Global Vision’s joint CIO.

Lockyer and Barthalon took up the new post at the beginning of the year and will co-operate with Thomas. The new appointments do not imply any change in Thomas’s role, a spokesman for AGI told IPE.

In his new role at Cominvest, Gerdes will act as a “new member of the executive board”, responsible for “all investment decisions”. Current CIO, Wolfgang Plum, will leave the company to retire next year.

In a statement, announcing Plum’s retirement, Cominvest has explained: “The succession has been arranged in good time with Wolfram Gerdes.”

Until his retirement, Plum will be mainly responsible for human resources and as well as taking care of “big institutional mandates,” Cominvest said in the statement.

“Cominvest loses a highly qualified chief executive officer, who has successfully fulfilled the position for 15 years,” vice chairman Friedrich Schmitz was quoted as saying.