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The views expressed herein do not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations and do not necessarily represent the views of all AB portfolio-management teams.
Bond Managers Power Up for the Digital Future
16 October 2018
4 min read
Jeff Skoglund, CFA| Chief Operating Officer—Investments
Gershon M. Distenfeld, CFA | Director—Income Strategies
James Switzer| Head—Municipal Bonds
Scott DiMaggio, CFA| Head—Fixed Income
About the Authors
Jeff Skoglund is Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Investments. He is responsible for driving strategic planning, organizational effectiveness and operational excellence. Skoglund was previously COO of Fixed Income and was responsible for business strategy, innovation and technology, and talent management. Earlier in his career at AB, he was director of Credit Research and a portfolio manager for high-yield bond strategies. Prior to joining AB, Skoglund was a managing director at UBS Investment Bank, where he held numerous management positions, including global head of credit research and head of US credit desk analysts. He was an acclaimed high-yield analyst at UBS, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, ranked #1 by Institutional Investor in automotive/auto parts six years in a row. Earlier in his career, Skoglund was an equity analyst and investment banker at Lehman Brothers and worked at Morgan Stanley in equity derivatives. He holds a BS in finance from Miami University, Ohio, and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Skoglund is a CFA charterholder. Location: Nashville
Gershon Distenfeld is a Senior Vice President, Director of Income Strategies and a member of the firm’s Operating Committee. He is responsible for the portfolio management and strategic growth of AB’s income platform with almost $60B in assets under management. This includes the multiple-award-winning Global High Yield and American Income portfolios, flagship fixed-income funds on the firm’s Luxembourg-domiciled fund platform for non-US investors. Distenfeld also oversees AB’s public leveraged finance business. He joined AB in 1998 as a fixed-income business analyst and served in the following roles: high-yield trader (1999–2002), high-yield portfolio manager (2002–2006), director of High Yield (2006–2015), director of Credit (2015–2018) and co-head of Fixed Income (2018–2023). Distenfeld began his career as an operations analyst supporting Emerging Markets Debt at Lehman Brothers. He holds a BS in finance from the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University and is a CFA charterholder. Location: Nashville
James Switzer is a Senior Vice President and Head of Municipal Bonds. He is responsible for driving our municipal bond strategy, including the firm’s innovation efforts within our municipal research, trading and portfolio construction processes, underpinned by best-in-class technology. Switzer has been instrumental in the strategic repositioning of our trading organization and the development of our industry-leading trading tools, ALFA and Abbie. Before joining AB in 2011, he was a managing director at Société Générale, where he managed the Financial Institutions Credit Trading Desk, and at BNP Paribas, where he managed the Investment Grade Trading Desk from 2000 to 2002. Switzer also formerly served as a sector portfolio manager and trader at UBS Principal Finance (from 2002 to 2005) and at Sigma Capital (from 2005 to 2008). Earlier in his career, he worked at Paine Webber and Co.; Kidder, Peabody & Co.; and Alex. Brown & Sons. Switzer holds a BA in biology from Colgate University. Location: New York
Scott DiMaggio is a Senior Vice President, Head of Fixed Income and a member of the Operating Committee. As Head of Fixed Income, he is responsible for the management and strategic growth of AB’s fixed-income business and investment decisions across the department. DiMaggio has previously served as director of Global Fixed Income and continues to be a portfolio manager across numerous multi-sector and multi-currency strategies. Prior to joining AB’s Fixed Income portfolio-management team, he performed quantitative investment analysis, including asset-liability, asset-allocation, return attribution and risk analysis for the firm. Before joining the firm in 1999, DiMaggio was a risk management market analyst at Santander Investment Securities. He also held positions as a senior consultant at Ernst & Young and Andersen Consulting. DiMaggio holds a BS in business administration from the State University of New York, Albany, and an MS in finance from Baruch College. He is a member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals and a CFA charterholder. Location: New York
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