American Century Names New Head of Quantitative Research

Former BlackRock/Barclays Global Investors (BGI) executive Vinod Chandrashekaran, Ph.D. has been named senior vice president and director of quantitative research at American Century Investments.

In his position, Chandrashekaran leads the quantitative research efforts for American Century’s Quantitative Equity discipline and is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the security selection models used by the quantitative equity strategies, according to the investment management firm. He also is being named co-portfolio manager for American Century’s Non-U.S. Systematic Large Cap Value (International Value) and Non-U.S. Large Cap Core (International Core) strategies.

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"Vinod brings substantial quantitative expertise to his role, having developed, managed and enhanced security selection and risk models at various well-respected quantitative firms," said Scott Wittman, chief investment officer for Asset Allocation and Quantitative Equity, in a press release. Chandrashekaran reports to Wittman. "He also brings experience in the areas of implementation research and risk-management, which will complement our capabilities. Vinod will be a key contributor to our team as we strive to deliver strong returns on behalf of our clients."

During his 10 years with BlackRock/BGI, Chandrashekaran served in a number of senior leadership positions. Since 2010, he’s been the head of risk management for the firm’s Quantitative Equity and Global-Macro strategies. Other roles have included head of implementation research for BGI’s Quantitative Active Equity teams and head of the U.S. Large Cap Equity portfolio management team. Previously, he was with Barra Inc., where he served as head of equity research.

Chandrashekaran holds a B.Tech (bachelor of technology) in electronics from the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras, India) and a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta, India). He earned a master’s degree and Ph. D. in finance from the University of California at Berkeley. Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio