Money manager Mohamed El-Erian is returning to Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co., this time as co-chief executive.
El-Erian, who left Pimco in 2005 to run Harvard University’s $35 billion endowment fund, is set to return in January.
He’ll share the chief executive title with veteran Bill Thompson. And El-Erian will share the chief investment officer title with Bill Gross, Pimco’s star bond fund manager.
The three are set to run the company together. The move puts El-Erian, 49, in line to run Pimco on his own.
Contracts for Thompson, 62, and Gross, 63, renewed earlier this year for another five years.
The renewals sparked speculation about long-term succession at the company, one of the largest bond fund managers with nearly $700 billion in assets.
El-Erian’s name had been floated by company watchers as a possible future candidate to lead the company.
Come January, El-Erian is set to influence Pimco’s investment strategy and help manage its portfolios, as well as direct business strategy with products, services and relationships.
El-Erian worked seven years for Pimco as a managing director and senior portfolio manager until 2005.
He left at that time to become chief executive of Harvard Management Co.
Gross, the public face of Pimco, said El-Erian will “strengthen an already deep management team, and help position the company for the future. I am ecstatic to have him join Bill Thompson and me in a top leadership role and help shape our vision for Pimco’s direction in the coming years.”
El-Erian said his motivation to come back was due in part to most of his family living on the West Coast.
Pimco is owed by Germany’s Allianz SE.
