A Gotham asset manager's team is mourning a former chief of their mutual fund business.

the late Robert John Conti

Retired Neuberger Berman veteran Bobby Conti passed away this week, MFWire has learned. He was 64 years old, and word is that he died of a heart attack.

Robert John Conti joined what is now Neuberger Berman in 1980, eventually rising to executive vice president and then, in 2008, to CEO of Neuberger's funds. He spent more than 38 years at New York City-based Neuberger and predecessor firms (including Lehman Brothers) "before retiring in June 2018," Neuberger spokesman Alex Samuelson tells MFWire in an emailed statement:

We are heartbroken to learn of the recent passing of our friend Bobby Conti. Bobby's contributions to Neuberger Berman and the impact he had on our clients and our people is impossible to measure ... During his time with us, Bobby served in a number of roles, including leading our mutual fund business, and he stayed deeply involved with the firm following his retirement as a member of our 1940 Act Mutual Fund board. Bobby was also an important voice in our industry, having served on the Investment Company Institute Board of Governors and earning a lifetime achievement award for strategic leadership from NICSA, a trade association for the asset management industry.

Conti served on the ICI's board from 2012 to 2018, including time on the board's audit and GMM planning committees.

"We remember him for his deep knowledge of the fund business, his many valuable contributions to our work, his longtime dedication to the missions of the ICI, and his collegial manner and friendship," Paul Schott Stevens, president and CEO of ICI, tells MFWire in an emailed statement. "Bobby will be missed by all who had the privilege to know him."

Earlier today, Andy Provencher, a Neuberger veteran now at BNY Mellon Investment Management, posted that "the world has a lost great man."

"Bobby Conti passed away yesterday. He was loved by all that knew him. Truly one of the most loving, special human beings on this planet," Provencher wrote on LinkedIn. "Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers. Rest in Peace old friend."

Fundsters responded by sharing their heartbreak, too, describing the late Conti as: "an absolute legend in every sense of the word"; a "true pro that never took himself too seriously"; "a selfless human being that touched so many"; "truly one of a kind"; and "one of the best in the business and life." Many commenters remembered Conti as "a mentor to many."

"It goes without saying that Bobby represented everything that is good about Neuberger Berman — he was the embodiment of our culture," Samuelson writes to MFWire. "He was friendly, selfless and caring — always focused on the people doing work for clients. He was sincerely interested to hear what was happening with his colleagues, both professionally and personally."

"And like many of us, Bobby was also devoted to helping make his community better, most notably with the Staten Island Mental Health Society," Samuelson adds. "He will be deeply missed and always remembered." 

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