Asset Management
SMA, fund manager Forward hires new operations chief
San Francisco-based Forward Management, investment advisor to the Forward and Accessor mutual funds and marketer of a range of niche-oriented separately managed accounts, hired former ING Funds president and COO Robert Naka a few weeks ago.
As Forward's president of operations, he's in charge of coordinating and integrating Forward's operational and trading functions.
"Rob has been brought on to enhance our operational platform,
integrating support for hedge funds, mutual funds and SMAs,”
says Forward's CEO Alan Reid. “Forward has [business
partnerships] with some of the industry’s strongest technology
platforms, and Rob’s addition will allow us to leverage those
capabilities across the back office”
Forward has been using Edison, New Jersey-based Market Street
Advisors as middle- and back-office processing provider for its
SMA and mutual-fund wrap programs since early in 2007.
Naka began his career nearly 25 years ago in accounting and
secondary marketing with mortgage lender Colwell Financial
(later Southmark Mortgage). In 1989, he joined the ING Funds
precursor Pilgrim Group as a mutual-fund compliance accountant.
By 1997, his responsibilities included information
technologies, human resources, facilities, SMAs and
operational-risk management. He also helped guide a series of
acquisitions and mergers that resulted in the present line-up
of the ING funds.
Forward - which recently took a minority stake in Broadmark
Asset Management, with which it plans to launch the Forward
Tactical Growth Fund - had about $3.3 billion under management
early in August 2009.
