Nuveen's top fund manager Hechmer quits

Nuveen Investment Inc.'s Paul Hechmer, a top-ranked fund manager in charge of about $14 billion in non-U.S. stock assets, resigned after a disagreement with the firm.

Hechmer departed June 15, Chicago-based Nuveen said on its Web site, without giving a reason. Hechmer, 43, said in an interview that he quit the firm's Tradewinds unit in part because he disagreed with a decision to open a half-dozen investment products.

"I think they expanded too quickly to integrate properly," Hechmer said today. "I didn't feel I could continue to deliver the service that I'd marketed to my clients."

Kathleen Cardoza, a spokeswoman for closely held Nuveen, declined to comment.

Hechmer managed the $898 million Nuveen Tradewinds International Value fund since 2002. The fund advanced an annual average of 6.4 percent in the past five years, beating 96 percent of rivals, according to data from Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. He also oversaw similar strategies for institutional and wealthy investors through separate accounts.

The departure is "a setback" for fund investors, Bill Rocco, an analyst with Morningstar, said in an interview.

The new managers of the fund are Peter Boardman, formerly a senior research analyst who also manages a Japan-focused fund, and Alberto Jimenez Crespo, previously a research analyst and co-manager of a global resources fund, Nuveen said in a June 15 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. They will be supported by David Iben, chief investment officer of Los Angeles-based Tradewinds, and a team of research analysts.

New Team

"The new managers have good resumes, but they don't have the same level of experience," Morningstar's Rocco said. "David Iben is still there and that mollifies me to an extent."

Nuveen said in its filing "there have been no changes to the fund's investment objective or policies."

Nuveen Tradewinds International Value has Morningstar's top performance ranking, five stars. In the past year, the fund dropped 21 percent, better than 96 percent of its peers, data from the research firm show.

Nuveen, the largest manager of closed-end funds, was taken private for $5.6 billion by buyout firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC in 2007. Nuveen manages about $115.3 billion in assets.