Success in the financial world is all about evolution. Only those able to change with the natural rhythms of the free market economy survive over the long term. Knowing when the time to move on has arrived is an intuition found among those who are at the top of the investment world.
Bill Gross, Pimco’s founder, received the El-Erian resignation and began making some staff readjustments immediately. Andrew Balls and Daniel Ivascyn became deputy chief investment officers. Both men have achieved notoriety. Balls served in the United Kingdom as portfolio manager and Ivascyn led the Pimco alternative investment strategies component.
The last year has been anything but quiet for Pimco. Heavily invested in U.S. Treasuries, the Total Return Fund, which rating agencies often use to monitor the health of Pimco, witnessed losses in 2013. This temporary downturn has not affected the overall faith in the direction of the organization.
For Mr. El-Erian, the future remains bright. He has demonstrated the type of resilience needed to survive in an industry where individuals bear the responsibility of handling large amounts of money. Over his long tenure, El-Erian has produced record amounts of wealth for institutions and governments. More importantly, many private citizens owe their retirement incomes to the wise strategies undertook by this humanitarian. It is this latter fact that ultimately drives business leaders, such as El-Erian, to continue working hard each day.
