New York Life announced today that Kirk Lehneis, 41, has been appointed chief operating officer of New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM), the investment management arm of New York Life Insurance Company.
Lehneis was elected a senior managing director of the company in September 2015. In this newly created role, he reports to Yie-Hsin Hung, CEO of NYLIM, and is a member of NYLIM’s Management Committee.
NYLIM is a multi-boutique investment firm with nearly USD285 billion in assets under management as of 31 March, 2016. Its operations include New York Life's family of independent investment boutiques; MainStay Investments, the company's mutual fund distribution platform in the US; and IndexIQ, its exchange-traded fund business.
As Chief Operating Officer, Lehneis will be responsible for strategic planning and implementation, with a focus on growing the firm’s alternative investment solutions, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and international footprint. He will also be responsible for mergers and acquisitions, training and strategic technology initiatives in support of the business.
“With NYLIM’s strong growth and successful global expansion, we felt that the time was right to build out our executive management team,” says Hung. “In his eleven years with New York Life and MainStay, Kirk has demonstrated outstanding leadership and judgment, and has been a key partner within Steve Fisher’s senior team in building our MainStay business and brand into one of the leading mutual fund families in the United States. Kirk's expertise and knowledge of New York Life and MainStay will be invaluable in his new role as COO and in helping further our success in the years ahead.”
Fisher, who is president of MainStay Investments and NYLIM, says: “Kirk has played an important role in our success at MainStay over the last decade while leading our product development efforts. He is very client focused, and brings broad expertise from working across all aspects of our investment management business. Kirk is an excellent choice for this new role, and we look forward to his making many more contributions to NYLIM in the years ahead.”
Lehneis joined New York Life in 2005 and progressed through a series of senior executive product development roles with MainStay Investments, one of the largest mutual fund families in the United States. Prior to his new role as COO, Lehneis had direct responsibility for and led product development for NYLIM, the MainStay Board relationship team and project management office for the retail line of NYLIM.
Lehneis says: “I am very excited to take an active role in NYLIM's growth, including international expansion efforts. As a part of one of the world’s oldest and most respected financial institutions, NYLIM is well positioned to bring its successful multi-boutique approach and suite of award winning solutions to investors in the growing global asset management market.”
