Allianz Global Investors, one of the world’s leading active investment managers, announced today that George McKay, its Co-Head, Global Head of Distribution and Global Chief Operating Officer (COO) will step down from executive responsibilities in April next year.
George McKay has been with AllianzGI since 2006, initially with responsibility for Operations across Asia Pacific and as Global COO since 2012. Since March 2016, he has also been responsible for Global Distribution and Co-Head of the firm alongside CEO and Global Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Andreas Utermann.
As part of the succession planning, AllianzGI has appointed Karen Prooth as its new Global COO. She joins AllianzGI on 1 November from Blackrock, where she has worked for the past 10 years, most recently as Global Platform Head for ETF & Index Investments. Previously she was Global Co-COO of iShares.
Karen Prooth has nearly 30 years of relevant industry experience gained at Blackrock (initially Barclays Global Investors), JP Morgan Asset Management and Prudential.
Commenting on Karen Prooth’s appointment, George McKay said: “We are delighted to welcome Karen to AllianzGI. She brings many years of outstanding leadership experience to this critically important role. In addition to being instrumental in ensuring our operational agility and efficiency as we continue to build our global active offering and to innovate on behalf of clients across asset classes, I know that Karen will make a significant contribution to the development of our company as a people-focused business, and she will play an active role in building on our already strong culture.”
From 1 April 2018, Tobias Pross, Head of EMEA at AllianzGI and a member of its Global Executive Committee since June 2015, will take on additional responsibility as Global Head of Distribution. Since joining Allianz’s asset management division in 1999, Tobias Pross has held a number of senior roles in Distribution and Client Advisory.
Commenting on the changes, Andreas Utermann, CEO and Global CIO of AllianzGI, said: “George has made a tremendous contribution to the global success of AllianzGI over the past 10 years, first as COO for Asia Pacific, then as Global COO and more recently as Co-Head of the firm. Throughout it all we have benefitted from his wisdom, judgement, collaborative spirit and good humour. Naturally we’ll miss his leadership when he steps into a non-executive role next spring. Nevertheless, we are in very good shape with the succession arrangements in place with the appointment of Karen and expansion of Tobias’ role.”
Further biographical details for Karen Prooth:
Blackrock (previously Barclays Global investors)
- 2016 – 2017 Global Platform Head, ETFs and Index Investments
- 2015 – 2016 Co-Global COO iShares
- 2007 – 2015 COO EMEA iShares
JP Morgan Asset Management
- 2003 – 2007 Head of Risk EMEA
- 1994 – 2003 COO, International Equities
- 1990 – 1994 Head of Performance
Prudential
- 1988 – 1990 Quantitative Analyst
