Principal Hires Industry Veteran George Maris as CIO, Global Head of Equities

Principal Asset Management^SM announced today that George Maris is joining the firm as chief investment officer and global head of equities ($221.2 billion in AUM¹). In this role, he’ll take on leadership responsibilities across the equities’ platform, including managing 126 investment professionals across global investment centers. Maris will also serve as a named portfolio manager on international equity strategies.

Maris joins Principal with 25 years of industry experience, most recently serving as head of equities, Americas, at Janus Henderson and lead portfolio manager on the firm’s international and global alpha equity strategies. He has held several investment leadership and portfolio management positions throughout his career and has a proven history of generating strong investment results, improving performance, developing teams and innovating capabilities.

“As the investment business evolves, Principal continues to sharpen its global equities capabilities leveraging the complete span of investment teams across 26 countries,” said Kamal Bhatia, global head of investments, Principal Asset Management. “We’re excited to bring George on-board as a leader and portfolio manager to help advance our offerings across domestic, international, and emerging market equities, all of which are sought after active management strategies with our clients. His expertise and perspective – combined with our teams’ depth of experience – will create an exceptional value proposition for our retail, retirement, and institutional clients worldwide.”

Maris will be added as a named portfolio manager on the firm’s active fundamental public equities strategies including international mutual funds, variable annuities, and the Principal Life Insurance separate account. He’ll take on leadership responsibilities across the platform to help deliver strong and consistent outcomes for a wide range of investor objectives and grow the firm’s equities platform globally.

"I am excited to join Principal Asset Management to help create the best equities division globally on behalf of our clients,” said George Marris. “As the investment landscape becomes more challenging and our clients’ needs grow, there is an increased need for investors who can successfully manage the risks and take advantage of the opportunities that are constantly present in markets. I look forward to partnering with the strong team at Principal to successfully navigate these risks and opportunities in order to generate successful outcomes for our clients."