Wayne Lyski will step down from his position as chairman and cio of fixed-income at Alliance Capital at the end of the year. As reported last week on Bondweek.com he will stay on as a special advisor to Bruce Calvert, ceo, until Jan. 31, 2004. "Part of the interest for me is in product creation and development. That will always be a feature of this business, but the pace of it has slowed and will continue slow because the business is more mature," says Lyski, explaining the the reason for his decision. He will be 61 when he retires. His duties will be taken over by the heads of the various business units, though the position of chairman and cio may eventually be re-established, he says. Kathleen Corbet, ceo of fixed-income, will become more active on the investment side of the business.
Lyski joined Alliance in 1983, taking charge of $2 billion in fixed-income assets. The firm now oversees some $145 billion in fixed-income assets, partly due to acquisitions. Lyski has been responsible for the development and management of all the tax-exempt funds at the firm since 1984, when he established a government bond fund now worth $1.3 billion. He followed with a corporate bond fund, which has grown to $1.5 billion and the North American Government Income Trust fund in 1992, which was developed in anticipation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. That fund now holds $2.5 billion in assets. He established institutional broad and enhanced sector rotation funds that now hold $12-14 billion in assets.
Lyski also developed emerging markets institutional and mutual fund products now worth $6 billion. He also created what is now a 60-person research group. He has been inducted into the Fixed-Income Analysts' Society Hall of Fame.
Prior to joining Alliance, Lyski spent 11 years at J.P. Morgan, where he headed a research group for an internal currency trading and bank portfolio, in addition to leading the research for the asset liability committee.