A key Forward Management [profile] executive is stepping back once the sale closes.

Lee Partridge, chief investment officer at Salient Partners [profile], confirms that Forward CEO Alan Reid's role will change after Houston-based Salient buys San Francisco-based Forward. The deal, which Salient unveiled last month, is slated to close by the end of the second quarter.

"Alan's intent is to stay on through the close of the transaction and then to really be serving in an advisory capacity to the senior management team after the transaction closes," Partridge tells MFWire.

MFWire could not immediately reach Reid for comment.

An alumnus of Menlo College, Reid worked with BofA, Nuveen, and Dean Witter Reynolds (now part of Morgan Stanley) before joining Forward as a founder in 1998. He started out as executive vice president and funds treasurer for a year before leaving for Morgan Stanley. He returned to Forward in April 2001, where he has remained ever since.

Salient chairman and CEO John Blaisdell will remain CEO of the combined firm, and Partridge will remain CIO. Forward chief operating officer Rob Naka will become COO of the combined company.

Salient and Forward together have more than $27 billion in assets under management and more than 250 employees in Houston, New York, and San Francisco. That translates into about 50 sales people in the field of about 55 investment professionals. Partridge says that Salient plans to keep the whole Forward investment team intact. 

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