Franklin Templeton today announced the appointment of Todd Bitzer, Emily Cox and Andre Cuerington as Senior Vice President, Client Advisors, US Institutional who all joined the firm in August. In their new roles, they will be responsible for building, growing and managing our partnerships with both existing and prospective institutional clients. Bitzer is based in Atlanta. Cox, who additionally serves as an Alternative Specialist, is based in Southern California. Cuerington is based in Northern California.

Bitzer and Cuerington report to Mike Foley, Head of US Institutional, who oversees Franklin Templeton’s US institutional direct sales, consultant relations and relationship management teams and serves as an essential liaison to institutional distribution leaders at the firm’s independent specialist investment managers. Cox reports to John Ivanac, Senior Vice President and Head of US Institutional Alternatives for Franklin Templeton on Foley’s team, focusing on the firm’s alternative investment capabilities.

“We continue to add experienced talent to further strengthen our team’s ability to create partnerships with institutional investors who are increasingly seeking to access the full value our firm can provide to them across both public and private investment markets,” said Foley. “Today, Franklin Templeton can bring a suite of compelling investment opportunities that span both traditional and alternative asset classes. Todd, Emily and Andre will be instrumental in our efforts to customize and deliver these offerings to help our clients better achieve their objectives and to provide the exemplary service they have come to expect from us,” said Foley.

Private markets continue to be the most active part of institutional portfolios. According to PitchBook forecasts, investment in private markets is expected to reach $23.7 trillion by 2028, with private capital continuing to outpace the growth of public equity and fixed income market assets, which stood at $14.7 trillion in 2022. Aligned with this growing institutional interest, Franklin Templeton has been building out its private markets capabilities to become one of the top 10 largest alternatives managers in the industry, with over $250 billion in assets under management.

“As institutional investors increasingly seek to expand their allocation to alternative investments like private real estate, commercial real estate debt, private credit and private equity, secondaries in particular, they are calling on asset management partners to help them customize offerings to meet their objectives,” said Ivanac. “I am pleased to welcome Emily to work closely with me in addressing the needs of our clients as they introduce and refine alternatives allocations.”

Bitzer has over 30 years of financial industry experience, most recently serving as Managing Director at Lucid Management & Capital Partners focused on institutional business development. Prior to that he held institutional sales leadership roles at Columbia Threadneedle Investments and Aviva Investors. He holds a BBA in Marketing and Finance from the University of Georgia.

Cox has over a decade of experience in the financial services industry, joining from Tetragon where she worked in business development focused on alternatives, including private credit strategies. Prior to that she was a relationship manager for BlackRock, Inc.'s institutional client business. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Cuerington has over 27 years of financial industry experience, most recently serving as managing director for Makena Capital Management’s client strategy group. He has also held business development roles at Trust Company of the West, Waterfall Asset Management and PineBridge Investments. Cuerington holds MS degrees in Engineering-Economics Systems and Applied Mathematics from Stanford University and the Naval Postgraduate School respectively. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Operations Research from the United States Military Academy.

These appointments follow the addition of senior talent to Foley’s US Institutional team over the past year.

Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN] is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 150 countries. Franklin Templeton’s mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company offers specialization on a global scale, bringing extensive capabilities in fixed income, equity, alternatives and multi-asset solutions. With more than 1,500 investment professionals, and offices in major financial markets around the world, the California-based company has over 75 years of investment experience and over $1.6 trillion in assets under management as of August 31, 2024. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.com and follow us on LinkedIn, X and Facebook.

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