Philipp Hensler has left his post as the head of DWS Investments Distributors, The MFWire has learned. An industry source told The MFWire that Mike Woods, previously with Evergreen Investments, is taking over as the new distribution chief.

A DWS spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment, as were Hensler and Woods.

Sources told The MFWire that Hensler left last week.

A call to Hensler's office yields this recorded message: "You have reached an unassigned number at Deutsche Bank's 345 Park Avenue location." His picture and biography have also been removed from the "Management Team" section of the DWS Web site.

New York-based Hensler became the head of the asset manager's distribution arm in 2005. (Scudder Investments was rechristened DWS Scudder in February 2006 and in July of last year took on its current name, DWS Investments.)

Hensler joined Deutsche Bank in 1998 as country head and CEO for Deutsche Asset Management in Switzerland. Earlier, he served as the head of retail investment distribution for Zurich Scudder Investments in Switzerland and held portfolio management posts at Coutts & Co. Before that, he held private banking posts at Rothschild Bank and Swiss Bank Corporation.

Deutsche Bank bought Zurich Scudder Investments in 2002.

Woods, for his part, was most recently with Evergreen Investments, where he led the financial institutions group for about two years. Before that, he led XTF Global Asset Management, which later sold its remaining assets to Marco Polo, an ETF research firm.

Earlier, Wood spent six years at Citigroup/Legg Mason, where his roles included serving as the U.S. head of the sub-advisory and DC I-O business.

UPDATE: DWS issued a news release Tuesday afternoon announcing Woods' appointment as US head of distribution. Woods will report to Ingo Gefeke, global head of distribution and product management. 

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