Columbia Management Group is looking to hire a senior analyst/portfolio manager, as well as a more junior analyst to replace people who have left the firm. Tom LaPointe, a portfolio manager at the Boston firm, which manages $3.5 billion in high-yield, says Columbia would like to make the hires before year-end, but realizes that it may be difficult to find someone until bonuses have been paid out at the beginning of next year.
The senior hire would replace June Giroux, who recently left Columbia to join Gimme Credit--a Chicago-based independent research firm that launched high-yield coverage last week. Giroux focused on the energy sector, so expertise in that area would be useful, though not critical, LaPointe says. Columbia currently has a nine-person team.