Robert Wagner, former president and chief executive officer of Gartmore Emerging Managers, left the Nationwide subsidiary for Victory Capital Management in late June. Wagner is now president of Victory, in turn a subsidiary of KeyCorp.

A Gartmore spokesperson did not return a call seeking comment on whether the firm has found a new president to take Wagner's place.

Wagner takes over investment management and marketing functions from Rick Buoncore, Victory's chief executive officer. Retail and institutional sales employees will still report to Buoncore, as will Wagner.

Victory's investment business includes approximately 30 managed portfolios and $50 billion in retail and institutional assets under management.

The hiring of Wagner continues a trajectory the firm started 13 months ago to decentralize Victory's investment management business, said Ronald Petrie, Victory spokesman. At that time, Victory acquired NewBridge Partners, now called Victory NewBridge, but let the New York City-based asset manager conduct business autonomously, said Petrie.

At that time, NewBridge managed $2 billion in assets. Buoncore commented about the NewBridge deal at that time, “NewBridge’s ‘growth’ style is a perfect complement for Victory’s ‘value’ style of equity investing…For NewBridge, this represents an opportunity to manage more assets, with the support of Victory’s much larger distribution organization.”

Expect to see acquisitions or subadvisory relationships in the future for Cleveland-based Victory, said Petrie. He added that Victory's strong distribution network would fit well with smaller organizations, much like the NewBridge deal.

As for changes within Wagner's group, look for a "constellation of autonomous investment management teams," said Petrie. 

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