Ryan Departs Ryan Labs

“We at Ryan Labs are supportive of Ron’s decision to pursue his interests and are appreciative of his contributions to the firm,” said the announcement, signed by Sean McShea, an 11-year veteran of Ryan Labs, who will succeed Ron Ryan as president at the firm.

New York-based Ryan Labs pioneered benchmarking liabilities in 1989 and trademarked its Custom Liability Index system in 1991. Ryan Labs calculates $99 billion of liability indices, and manages $17 billion in indexed assets for clients-all bond accounts, populated with investment grade paper, mirroring the liabilities (see Course Corrections ). Ryan was formerly director of fixed-income research at Lehman Brothers prior to founding Ryan Labs in 1988.

Administrative “Leave”

During the past two years, Ryan Labs doubled its actively managed fixed-income assets, and Ryan’s increasing administrative responsibilities resulting from this growth “…prevented him from focusing on the research efforts and new product development that he most enjoys. Mr. Ryan’s future ventures will provide him with the flexibility to concentrate in these areas,” according to McShea.

“The only change to the investment management process is that Mr. Ryan will no longer be a part of the model portfolio design,” according to the release. During the past eight years at Ryan Labs, the outspoken Ryan and Dr. Douglas Love were jointly responsible for model portfolio design for all composites. Last year the firm hired Michael Donelan to assume some of the model portfolio design responsibilities from Ryan as well as to lead Ryan Labs’ trading effort.

Additionally, Thomas Kirch, a partner in KV Partners, LLC, and a veteran of 37 years in financial services, will replace Ryan on the board and serve as senior advisor to the firm, according to the release.

McShea said that the Asset Management Division will continue to manage all portfolios as a team utilizing the systematized investment management process and analytics developed over the years at Ryan Labs, and that all members of the Ryan Labs Asset Management team will remain with the firm.