One of the architects of the most successful mutual fund startup (by AUM growth) of the past decade is riding off into the sunset after more than 49 years in financial services.

Louis Lucido

DoubleLine Capital [profile] founding partner and chief operating officer Lou Lucido, age 70, retired from the Los Angeles-based fixed income shop on December 31, Barron's reports. Lucido tells the pub that he wanted to spend time with his sick wife.

"It's a wake-up call," Lucido tells Barron's. "It's like Mark Twain said, you spend all your time planning things and that's when life passes you by."

Lucido pursued (but did not complete) a University of Oklahoma architecture degree, though he later earned an NYU MBA. He later served as COO at Hyperion Capital Management (working with Lewis Ranieri of securitization fame) and as chief investment officer at Delphi Financial Group before joining TCW.

Lucido was a TCW managing director in late 2009 when management famously ousted Jeffrey Gundlach, and Lucido and two other TCW colleagues teamed up with Gundlach to launch DoubleLine. In nine years, the firm has grown $121 billion in AUM.

"We have a great foundation at DoubleLine," Lucido tells Barron's. "One of the most exciting things I've done in my life was to get that thing founded."

In retirement, watch for Lucido to work with "a whole bunch of start-ups" and foster-care-focused charities.

Meanwhile, at DoubleLine, the company website lists no new COO, though the executive biographies section does include a bio for Patrick Townzen, a seven-year company veteran who serves as manager of operations. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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