Turnaround Tag at PIMCO, Expansion Plans at PAAMCO

Sometimes the global financial media does math with words rather than numbers. Consider the latest on PIMCO, which was roundly declared by outlets in precincts ranging from Wall Street to the city of London to be a “turnaround” case as it crossed the Atlantic to poach Manny Roman from hedge fund Man Group, naming him to replace Doug Hodge … Consider also that it’s been nearly two years since Bill Gross took off for a much smaller fund at Janus—and he’s once again a go-to Wise Man for the same global financial media, which checks in with him on everything from bond yields to Brexit … Here’s another way of looking at the latest at PIMCO, where the CEO’s job tended to get second-fiddle treatment with the presence of Gross, who never held the top management post there, and even shared the chief investment officer’s title with Mohamed El-Erian toward the end of his tenure. Early reports indicate that it’s unlikely Roman will stand in the shadow of current CIO Dan Ivascyn—although the new hire seems to carry the imprint of Ivascyn’s purported strategic preference to get well beyond bonds … Lots of male egos in the mix, which might explain why Jacqueline “Jackie” Hunt went unmentioned in the latest round of change. Who’s Hunt? The new “overseer” that PIMCO’s Munich-based parent Allianz hired to keep an eye on its U.S. businesses. Hunt only started on July 1, and seems to have had quite the first month on the job … PIMCO wasn’t the only investment outfit to make a key hire lately—Irvine-based fund of hedge funds Pacific Alternative Asset Management Co. hired Blackstone vet and recent McKinsey & Co. adviser Carrie McCabe as a managing director for new business initiatives and special projects. PAAMCO continues “to expand and build the firm,” according to CEO Jane Buchan, whose team has $10 billion in assets under management and works in an advisory role on another $12 billion worth of business … What’s “Contemporary California Coastal Crafstman”? A gander at the new clubhouse at Newport Beach Country Club ought to put you in the picture on that alliterative ascription, which got bandied about among the swells at a July 18 ribbon-cutting … 2-Paper Town: A story on A1 of the OC Register on July 19 weighed in on the GOP convention with this: “STATE FRONT AND (ALMOST) CENTER—Prime seating, impassioned speeches mark California’s presence in Cleveland” … A1 of the L.A. Times on the same day: “ON THE SIDELINES—California’s GOP delegation, seen as irrelevant, lands a hotel about 60 miles from the action” … The next day’s Wall Street Journal provided a tiebreaker on A-6, with a headline of “California Delegates Get Long Commute” over a story about the Golden State contingent’s hotel in Sandusky, a suburb “halfway to Toledo” … Kudos: to Concordia U in Irvine, which turns 40 this summer … Hoag Hopper? That’s the Insider’s suggestion on a name for this slick six-seater, which will shuttle patients around the health provider’s facilities in Irvine (see related story, this page).