Robeco strengthens its Global Fixed Income Macro team
Rotterdam, 20 April 2018 – Robeco announces the appointment of a new head and co-head of the Global Fixed Income Macro team. Fred Belak has joined Robeco as head of the Global Fixed Income Macro team and portfolio manager of the Robeco Global Total Return Bond Fund. He succeeds Kommer van Trigt, who has decided to pursue career opportunities elsewhere and has agreed to stay on until 1 July 2018 to ensure a smooth transition. Michiel de Bruin will join the company on 8 May as co-head of the Global Fixed Income Macro team. Remmert Koekkoek, currently co-head of the team, will share that responsibility with Michiel, thereby enabling Remmert to maintain full focus and dedication on liability-driven investments and overlay strategies to ensure clients are served in the best possible manner.
The expansion of the team strengthens especially its absolute and total return skills, as well as the government and LDI expertise in the team. Fred Belak has over 25 years of investment experience, with a strong track record in total return management. He comes from Lombard Odier, where he was CIO for interest-rate and macro trading funds. Before that, he was Partner at Stoneworks, a start-up macro hedge fund, and has held positions with various asset managers, including JP Morgan Chase and Barclays.
Michiel de Bruin will focus on euro government bonds and liability-driven investments. He will co-manage Euro Government Bonds with Olaf Penninga. He comes from BMO Global Asset Management in London, where his last position was head of Global Rates and Money Markets, having held various other positions before that, including head of Euro Government Bonds. Michiel started his career in the industry in 1986.
Robeco is in the process of hiring two other portfolio managers, who will bring additional credit and emerging allocation skills to the team to support the total and absolute return strategies. Robeco has long-standing experience in fixed income macro solutions. In addition to the Global Total Return Bond Fund, which was launched in 1974, Robeco manages government bond strategies, local currency emerging debt, LDI and buy & maintain solutions. Assets under management in these strategies currently amount to EUR 11 billion and liabilities under management are approximately EUR 36 billion.