Janus Capital Group named John Kerschner as head of securitized products for Janus’ fixed-income investment team.
The firm also appointed Christopher Diaz as head of global rates. Both positions are newly created and the appointees will report to Janus Co-CIO in fixed income Gibson Smith.
Kerschner originally joined Janus in December 2010 as a mortgage analyst. In his new role, he will focus on guiding Janus’ process around the mortgage market and securitized products.
Before Janus, he was director of portfolio management at BBW Capital Advisors. Prior to that, Kerschner was at Woodbourne Investment Management where he was global head of credit investing. Kerschner started his career at Smith Breeden Associates as an assistant portfolio manager and was promoted several times over twelve years becoming a principal, a senior portfolio manager and director of the ABS-CDO Group. He has 19 years of financial industry experience.
Diaz, who joined Janus on May 2, will work closely with Smith, the fixed-income portfolio management team and Colleen Denzler, in her role as head of fixed-income strategy, to oversee Janus’ global interest rate and global macro process.
He will also be co-portfolio manager on Janus Global Bond Fund effective May 11. As co-portfolio manager, Diaz will serve alongside existing Janus Global Bond Fund portfolio managers Smith and Darrell Watters.
Before Janus, Diaz was head of the global rates group at ING Investment Management where he also was senior portfolio manager, global interest rate strategy and co-portfolio manager of ING Global Bond Fund. He has 14 years of experience in global bond investing, including almost 11 years with ING.
According to Smith, Diaz’s expertise in global rates will enhance Janus’ deep fundamental bottom-up research process. “With the continued growth in our fixed income business we are fortunate to have someone with Chris’ extensive global investment experience joining our team,” Smith said. “Not only will he be a welcome addition to Janus Global Bond Fund, but we believe his expertise and approach using fundamental research will be instrumental in driving global investment ideas across all of our fixed income portfolios.”
“I look forward to joining Janus and the fixed income team, which is gaining significant market share in the institutional and intermediary marketplace,” Diaz said. “I believe they have one of the best credit to research teams in the business and my style and approach, which focuses on fundamental research to shape my macro views, will be a good complement to their approach.”
