The former chief of a $1-trillion-AUM asset manager is preparing to say goodbye.

Vijay C. Advani Nuveen Outgoing Executive Chiarman

Today Jose Minaya, the CEO of Chicago-based Nuveen [profile], confirms that executive chairman Vijay Advani from the firm at the end of the year. The Nuveen team is framing this as a "planned transition" in the wake of Minaya's promotion CEO back in January.

Though Minaya succeeded Advani as CEO, Minaya (age 49) will not succeed Advani (age 60) as chairman, company spokesperson Jessica Greaney confirms. Indeed, no one will take on that role after Advani exits.

Also according to the Nuveen team, watch for Advani to do consulting work on ESG, impact investing, and AI, and perhaps he'll take on board seats in the industry. (He is currently on the ICI's board of governors, the board of the Global Impact Investing Network, and the advisory board of the Hive Incubator.)

"Vijay put Nuveen in the strongest possible position to continue meeting the diverse and complex needs of our clients while also leading our efforts to grow in new markets around the globe," Minaya states. "His contributions to Nuveen, to our parent TIIA and to me personally over the last few years have been invaluable."

Roger Ferguson, president and CEO of TIAA (parent of Nuveen), adds that this is a "smooth and orderly transition," and praises Advani for Nuveen's ascensions "to the top tier of global asset managers." Advani, for his part, lauds Nuveen's "amazingly talented people and a breadth of private and public market capabilities unlike any other."

"It has been an amazing honor and my proudest professional accomplishment to help lead Nuveen," Advani states.

Advani joined TIAA Global Asset Management (now part of Nuveen) almost four years ago as president and chief operating officer almost four years ago, then rose to CEO shortly thereafter. And he serves on TIAA's executive committee.

Before his time at TIAA and Nuveen, Advani spent 21 years at Franklin Templeton, serving in a variety of distribution roles before rising to co-president in 2015. He also spent 11 years at IFC and is an alumnus of UMass Amherst and of the University of Mumbai.

Advani's departure comes as 75 percent of all of TIAA, including Nuveen, is going through a buyout program. The official word is that, while TIAA overall will see its headcount dip by about 10 percent thanks to the program, only four or five percent of Nuveen's investment personnel chose to participate in the program. Most of the exiting employees won't leave until November. 

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