The world's largest bond manager has a financially conservative heir apparent — Mohamed El-Erian, said Bill Gross, founder of Pimco, manager of the world's largest bond fund.
Mohamed El-Erian, current CEO and co-Chief Investment Officer, has quickly become Pimco's face in the press, making calm assessments on not-so-calm markets.
“Mohamed is my heir apparent,” Gross told the New York Times.
“He is more conservative than I am. I am the risk taker.”
Editor's Note: Startling Proof of the End of America’s Middle Class. Details in the Video
Markets have taken note, as Pimco boasts $1.8 trillion in assets under management.
“He is the succession plan for Bill,” Marilyn Cohen, who runs Envision Capital Management in Los Angeles, said of El-Erian and Gross.
“I think it has worked masterfully. They have doubled-clutched it together or singularly.”
Some market watchers, however, expressed some degree of skepticism over El-Erian.
While Gross is a trader in every sense of the word, El-Erian is seen by many as an economist, formerly at the International Monetary Fund, though he did serve as president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, which manages Harvard’s endowment and related accounts, before managing bond funds at Pimco.
“Why would somebody with so little bond trading experience be in line for the top job?” said Sylvain R. Raynes, a co-founder of R & R Consulting in New York, which helps investors measure risks associated with bond investments, the Times added.
“There are other candidates who are less flamboyant.”
Editor's Note: Startling Proof of the End of America’s Middle Class. Details in the Video
Some were even less kind.
“I think once Bill is gone, we take our money away immediately,” said an investment executive who manages money for endowments, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize his relationship with Pimco.
According to the New York Times, El-Erian earned $100 million last year alone, while Gross earned $200 million.
There is one job meanwhile, that El-Erian says he hasn't been offered despite market that such an offer was in the works — that of prime minister of Egypt.
“There are many more qualified candidates than me,” El- Erian told Bloomberg, when asked about recent talk that been approached for the job of Egypt’s new prime minister under President Mohamed Mursi.
“At this critical time in Egypt’s history, it is important that candidates include those who have been living in Egypt and who have participated in person in Egypt’s revolutionary process.”
El-Erian was born in New York City, though his father was a law professor at Cairo University served at the United Nations as well.
© 2013 Moneynews. All rights reserved.