Goldman installs JPMorgan’s Bryon Lake to boost public franchise

investmentnews.com:

Goldman Sachs Asset Management wants its star hire from rival JPMorgan Asset Management to provide a shot-in-the-arm to the firm’s public-market franchise.

Bryon Lake, who starts Monday as a New York-based partner, will serve as GSAM’s chief transformation officer, a newly created role, according to a press release. Lake is expected to better bundle the firm’s different public-market offerings — such as exchange-traded funds and separately managed accounts — in a bid to gain ground in a fiercely competitive investment arena, according to Goldman’s Marc Nachmann.

“Our heritage has always been — on the investing side — we’ve always been active investors,” Nachmann, Goldman’s global head of asset and wealth management, said in an interview. “I would say we’ve probably been less-good on packaging, marketing and broad appeal. And so when you think about what Bryon’s done, he’s obviously done a phenomenal job on the active ETF side and growing that business.”

While GSAM oversees roughly $2.9 trillion in assets, the manager has been losing share in key corners, such as the rapidly expanding $9.4 trillion US ETF market. The firm commands just 0.4% of total industry assets, roughly flat since 2017, with $34 billion across its products. That means Goldman has so far missed out on massive growth in actively managed ETFs — an area that Lake predicted last February could reach $3 trillion by 2028, from about $721 billion currently. 

During Lake’s tenure at JPMorgan, its ETF assets reached an all-time high, propelling the bank into the ranks of top 10 largest ETF issuers. As GSAM’s chief transformation officer, Lake will have a broader aperture than just ETFs.

“We didn’t want to pigeonhole him into any of the one businesses,” said