DWS continues to strengthen its investment expertise. In a press release, the firm has announced that on October 1, Frank Engels will become Global Head of Fixed Income.
He joins from Union Investment, where he has led the portfolio management, with approximately 300 employees and over 300 billion euros in assets under management, as well as the Multi Asset division since January 2018. Engels also served as Chairman of the “Union Investment Committee”.
Meanwhile, Joern Wasmund, former Global Head of Fixed Income, will assume overall responsibility for the DWS investment platform in Europe as Regional Investment Head EMEA. In their roles, Engels and Wasmund will report to Stefan Kreuzkamp, Head of the Investment Division, Chief Investment Officer and Member of the Executive Board of DWS Group.
“I am very pleased that Joern Wasmund will assume overall responsibility for our investment platform in Europe. He is handing over a well-positioned fixed income group to Frank Engels – a challenging asset class for all fiduciary asset managers in the historically low interest rate environment we all currently face. With Engels, DWS gains a proven and respected investment and market expert; exactly the right person to help our clients achieve the best possible investment results,” Kreuzkamp commented.
Over 20 years of experience
Engels joined Union Investment in 2012 and has since held senior positions in fixed income portfolio management. Previously, he worked as Global Head of Asset Allocation Strategy and Co-Head of Research European Economics at Barclays Capital. As Head of Emerging Market Debt, Engels already worked at Union Investment from 2008 to 2010, in portfolio management. Previously, he served as an investment manager and Head of Strategy at Thames River Capital LLP starting in 2004. From 1999 to 2004, he worked as a senior economist at the European Central Bank (ECB) and as an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He began his career in 1998 at Swiss Re.
As for Wasmund, he had led the global fixed income team of DWS since 2014. He previously held various senior positions in fixed income EMEA and was responsible for the firm’s CDO business in Europe and Asia. Wasmund started his career as a portfolio manager for subordinated corporate bonds and CDOs. He joined DWS in 1999 and previously worked for four years at the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DfG (German Research Foundation), on a project on the efficient design of financial markets.
DWS’s global fixed income business has over 290 billion euros in client assets and over 150 employees in Frankfurt, New York and Hong Kong.
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