Morningstar has filled the director of research slot -- John Rekenthaler's previous position -- with the internal promotion of Paul Kaplan. The position has been open since Rekenthaler was promoted to president of the Online Advice division at the beginning of the year.

Kaplan will manage a group of research analysts to develop Morningstar products and methodologies, including the Morningstar Rating, mutual funds analyses, and the underlying models for online advice and investment tools.

Don Phillips, the managing director to whom Kaplan will report, says the need for global standards for Morningstar's research applications create unique difficulties for Kaplan to tackle. "One of the major challenges that Paul will face as Morningstar becomes more global will be taking our products global."

Kaplan joined Morningstar in 1999, as the director of quantitative research, where he developed the methodology behind Morningstar ClearFuture, now managed by Rekenthaler. Kaplan is known for his detailed theoretical knowledge and a historically successful sense of their practical applications.

Before Morningstar, Kaplan was vice president and chief economist at Ibbotson Associates, where he developed asset-allocation software and created forecasting models of asset class behavior. In the 1980's, Kaplan was a faculty member at Northwestern University, where he taught international finance and statistics.

Kaplan received his B.A. from New York University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

 

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