A veteran hedge fundster is joining a $35-billion-AUM mutual fund firm's C-suite.

Today John Koudounis, president and CEO of Calamos Investments LLC [profile], confirms that Dan Dufresne has signed on with the Midwestern asset manager. Dufresne now serves in the freshly added role of chief operating officer at the Naperville, Illinois-based firm.

Dufresne spent 21 years with Chicago-based Citadel LLC, where he most recently served as partner, managing director and senior advisor to the COO before retiring last year. He served in a host of other leadership roles there over the years.

At Calamos, the team is framing the addition of a COO (and Dufresne taking that role) in the context of the firm's growth since Koudounis joined in 2016 (shortly before the company went private). Koudounis lauds Dufresne's "extensive operational and financial experience."

"While the firm has accomplished much due to our focused growth strategy and strong investment performance in recent years, those successes simply point to how much further we can go," Koudounis states. "Dan's experience and capabilities will help us continue on this path."

"Dan's appointment is an integral step that reinforces the strong foundation we have built in the last few years," states John Calamos, the founder, chairman, and global chief investment officer of his eponymous firm.

For his part, Dufresne praises Calamos Investments' "incredible heritage and promising future," and he describes John Calamos as "a pioneer and innovator in our industry for over 40 years."

Dufresne joined Citadel in 1999 after working with the D.E. Shaw Group. He is an alumnus of the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and of Cornell University. 

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