Pat Halter has found a chief to oversee the Principal's ETF, mutual fund, and UCITs businesses around the world.

Kamal Bhatia Principal Global Investors President and CEO of Principal Funds

Kamal Bhatia is taking over as the new president and CEO of Principal Funds, confirms Halter, president and CEO of Principal Global Investors (PGI). Pensions & Investments reports that Bhatia succeeds Mike Beer, who will retire later this year.

Citywire also reported on Bhatia's move.

Bhatia most recently served as CEO and chairman of the board of OC Private Capital, an OppenheimerFunds-Carlyle Group joint venture that specializes in private credit. OpFunds, a mutual fund shop, and Caryle, a private equity firm, unveiled OC Private Capital two years ago with Bhatia and Carlyle's Mark Jenkins as co-heads.

Bhatia's move to Principal comes three months after Invesco acquired OpFunds and a year after Halter took over PGI.

"As we continue to invest in and evolve our platform, Kamal [Bhatia] brings significant asset management experience across multiple business platforms," Halter states. "In addition to being a strong cultural fit, Kamal brings a seasoned understanding of evolving customer needs to help us take advantage of new opportunities to grow our global platform."

Bhatia, for his part, lauds' Principal's "global footprint" and "stellar culture and client trust."

An alumnus of Washington University in St. Louis and of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Bhatia spent more than six years at OpFunds before shifting to OC Private Capital. Before that he worked at TIAA-CREF, Mellon, and Citi.

Beer, an alumnus of the University of Northern Iowa, has spent 30 years at Principal. He has led as Principal Funds as president and CEO since 2015.

As of June 30, PGI (which includes Principal Funds) had about $451.7 billion in AUM. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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