William Blair strategy manager returns to the fold

FWR Staff

3 July 2008

Founding co-manager back as the firm re-opens small-cap growth to investors. Mike Balkin has returned to William Blair & Co. after a three-year stint at a hedge fund to co-manage its small-cap growth strategy -- just as the firm re-opens its Small-Cap Growth Fund and its institutional small-cap product to new investors.

"We are delighted to welcome Mike back to our firm and remain very positive about the long-term investment opportunities in the small-cap growth asset class," says Michelle Seitz, head of William Blair's asset-management business. "We believe it is an opportune time to re-open this strategy to new investors."

Magnetar

Balkin joined William Blair in 1990. In 1999 he co-founded and co-managed the firm's Small-Cap Growth product with Karl Brewer, who (with Colin Williams) still manages the strategy.

In 2005 Balkin left William Blair to co-found and serve as CIO to Evanston, Ill.-based Magnetar Capital, a hedge-fund firm with $8.1 billion in assets under management, according to its latest ADV filing with the SEC.

Balkin's return is one of several high-profile hires Seitz has made since William Blair restructured its investment-management business to include financial-advisory and wealth-management units about a year ago. These include the appointments of Patrick Shepard from Mellon Financial( now part of Bank of New York Mellon), Tom Ross from the U.K investment consultancy bfinance and John Brennan from Bank of America.

Chicago-based William Blair has offices in Boston, New York, San Francisco, London, Shanghai, Tokyo and Zurich. It managed $54 billion in assets at the end of March 2008. -FWR

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