Both Cowley and Christine Johnson have been promoted as a result of the reshuffle, becoming investment director – fixed income and macro, and head of fixed income respectively.
Cowley’s newly created position will see him focusing on his institutional mandates, his £927m Global Strategic Bond, his offshore portfolios and marketing the new vehicle, on which Hinesh Patel will provide support. He will also manage the £102m Old Mutual Managed fund.
Johnson, who joined the group in September 2010 from Halbis, will continue to run her £422m Corporate Bond and £40m Monthly Income Bond funds as well as manage the team, which consists of Tim Barker, head of credit research, Lloyd Harris, senior credit analyst and Bastian Wagner, assistant portfolio manager.
Deepa Abraham and Simon Prior have joined the team, while an additional hire to the global bond team is being sought. OMGI’s fixed income team currently runs £2.2bn of assets.
Chief executive Julian Ide said the group prided itself on identifying and nurturing new talent, naming Ashton Bradbury, Dan Nickols, Richard Watts and Luke Kerr as managers who had been at OMGI (formerly Old Mutual Asset Managers) for over a decade and are now managing core funds.
"Stephen Message is one of our newest members to this team and he has been identified by many third-party industry commentators to be a rising investment star,” he added.