Citigroup's Robert Kulason, a 15-year veteran of the firm's mortgage-backed securities research effort and a frequent winner on the Institutional Investor All-America Fixed-Income Research Team, is retiring "within the next several weeks," according to firm spokeswoman Danielle Romero, declining to elaborate further on the move. Kulason, reached at his desk, declined comment.
The most likely candidate to replace him, according to several of Kulason's rivals, is Chris Flammia, a buy-side pass-through analyst at Standish Mellon Asset Management in Boston, who was said to have announced his departure for Citi this week. Flammia was unavailable to comment and his boss, Marc Seidner, did not return a call seeking comment. Flammia, according to several sell-side analysts, was said to have designed Standish Mellon's pass-through analysis model and directed the portfolio's investments in that sector.