Pimco managing director Wendy Cupps to retire after 21 years

By Jennifer Ablan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bond giant Pimco said on Thursday that Wendy Cupps, managing director and head of product management, has decided to retire from the firm at the end of 2015 after 21 years with the Newport Beach, Calif. company.

Cupps will be succeeded by Jennifer Bridwell, managing director and head of Pacific Investment Management Company's alternative products, the company said.

Under Cupps, her product management department partnered with portfolio management and account management to develop investment solutions for Pimco clients and investors all over the world, including public and private institutions, financial intermediaries, defined contribution plans and individuals.

Cupps has been tangled in the management turmoil since the resignation of chief executive and co-chief investment officer Mohamed El-Erian in January 2014.

Bill Gross, the co-founder of Pimco who resigned abruptly over a year ago, had said in his lawsuit filed last month that Dan Ivascyn, who replaced him, and Brent Harris, who was in charge of Pimco's mutual fund complex, "would recruit other ambitious Pimco executives who stood to gain from an upheaval, such as Pimco's director of new products Wendy Cupps and (Jay) Jacobs himself."

In an interview with Reuters, Cupps said she has been contemplating her retirement for some time and the upheaval at Pimco "is not related to my retirement at all."

Pimco said Cupps, a member of the executive committee and on the board of directors and treasurer of the Pimco Foundation, "informed leadership some time ago of her intention to retire at end-2015 when her Executive Committee tenure ended and to enable a good lead-in time to transition her responsibilities to Jen and team."

Bridwell will retain her responsibilities as head of alternative product management, which has about $24.5 billion in assets under management.

Pimco, a unit of German insurer Allianz SE, had $1.47 trillion in assets under management, as of Sept. 30.

(Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

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