Reuters reports that BlackRock [profile] has hired Bartlett Geer away from Putnam Investments [profile] in a bid to strengthen the iShares line of actively managed equity funds.

Geer will be a managing director of the BlackRock fundamental equity team, according to a company spokeswoman. He managed Putnam's Equity Income Fund, a $3.6 billion, four-star fund, for more than 12 years.

The Reuters story points out that Larry Fink has been aggressively trying to improve BlackRock's equity fund performance in recent months, dropping Bob Doll from the large-cap series and bringing in new managers. In last month's quarterly conference call, Fink pointed to fundamental equity as an area where the firm's performance needs improvement.

Putnam said that Geer will be replaced on the Putnam Equity Income Fund by Darren Jaroch. 

Edited by: Chris Cumming


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