NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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. Mr. 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 leading, global multi-boutique investment firm with nearly $285 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 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, Mr. 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,” said Ms. 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.”
Mr. Fisher, who is president of MainStay Investments and NYLIM, said, “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.”
Mr. 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, Mr. 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.
Prior to joining New York Life Investments, Mr. Lehneis progressed through senior roles with GivingCapital, Inc., including Director of Client Service and Product Development for donor-advised fund product distribution to the financial services market. He began his career with a focus in sales and marketing with Unisys Corp. and Beenz.com, Inc. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Lehneis said, “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.”
About New York Life Insurance Company
New York Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States* and one of the largest life insurers in the world. New York Life has the highest possible financial strength ratings currently awarded to any life insurer from all four of the major credit rating agencies: A.M. Best (A++), Fitch (AAA), Moody’s Investors Service (Aaa), Standard & Poor’s (AA+).** Headquartered in New York City, New York Life’s family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life Investments*** provides institutional asset management. Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as retail mutual funds. Please visit New York Life’s website at www.newyorklife.com for more information.
New York Life Investments ranks among the world's largest asset managers****.
*Based on revenue as reported by “Fortune 500 ranked within Industries, Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual),” Fortune magazine, 6/15/15. For methodology, please see http://fortune.com/fortune500/.
**Individual independent rating agency commentary as of 8/11/15.
***New York Life Investments is a service mark used by New York Life Investment Management Holdings LLC and its subsidiary, New York Life Investment Management LLC.
****Source: New York Life Investments ranked 24th among the world’s largest money managers within Pensions & Investments, May 30, 2016. Rankings are based on total worldwide institutional assets under management for the year-end 2015. New York Life Investments assets include assets of affiliated investment advisors.