Mackenzie Investments cuts jobs, including senior management, in shakeup by new CEO

financialpost.com:

Mackenzie Investments has cut about 50 jobs, including senior executive roles, as part of a restructuring by new chief executive Luke Gould, people familiar with the matter said.

The reductions at one of Canada’s largest mutual fund managers came in two rounds, according to the people, speaking on condition they not be identified because they aren’t authorized to discuss the matter. The first involved executives including Michael Schnitman, the head of alternative investments, and Michael Cooke, head of exchange-traded funds.

Mackenzie then did another round of layoffs that eliminated dozens of jobs in a streamlining of the investment team, the people said, resulting in the departure of Canadian portfolio managers including Adam Rivers and Clayton Bittner. The firm, which managed $190.2 billion as of the end of May, now has approximately 1,350 employees, so the cut represents between three per cent and four per cent.

“After conducting a review, we have made changes to our organization over the last two months to simplify our leadership structure, position Mackenzie for continued growth and continue to provide investment excellence and strong client outcomes,” the firm said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg.

Mackenzie has been suffering from weak sales in its mutual fund business, partly because of competition from lower-cost products such as exchange-traded funds and the growing dominance of the Canada’s big banks in selling funds. Asset managers globally have also been hit by market volatility and rising interest rates, which led to a selloff in bonds and equities in 2022.

The restructuring aims to reduce duplication and consolidate assets under fewer people, one of the people said.

Gould took over as Mackenzie’s CEO