Russell Investments will be a significantly smaller company at the end of the year. On Tuesday the Tacoma, Washington-based firm revealed plans to lay off roughly 20 percent of its workforce in 2009. It was not immediately clear which units within the firm will be affected by the cuts.

"Russell is not immune to the changed environment and is actively taking steps to reduce expenses," the statement reads. "The expense reductions will come from a variety of sources."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Bill Virgin reports that Russell has 2,100 employees in 20 offices, including 1,100 in Tacoma alone.

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Company Press Release

Tacoma, WA — January 27, 2009 — The global financial environment has affected nearly every economy and industry, and companies across the globe are adjusting their operational expenses in response to the market realities. Russell is not immune to the changed environment and is actively taking steps to reduce expenses. The expense reductions will come from a variety of sources and include the difficult step of reducing the size of our associate population globally by approximately 20 percent by year-end.

Russell's resolve is strong in the face of the current challenges and we remain confident in our future prospects. We are firmly committed to our strategy of providing superior investment management by identifying the world's best investment managers and bringing them to individual and institutional clients to achieve investment excellence.

About Russell
Russell Investments is a global investment company with more than $150 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2008. Russell serves individual, institutional and advisor clients in more than 40 countries and provides investment solutions including mutual funds, retirement investments, institutional asset management, implementation services and global stock market indexes. Russell is world-renowned for its depth of manager research, quality of manager selection and access to some of the world's leading investment managers. It helps investors of all sizes put this access to work in corporate defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and in the life savings of individual investors.

Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Headquartered in Tacoma, Russell operates principal offices in Amsterdam, Auckland, Johannesburg, London, Melbourne, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto. 

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