After more than three decades managing risk in sometimes volatile investment markets, Christopher Ryon is planning his retirement as portfolio manager and managing director at Thornburg Investment Management.
Ryon, 63, said he will turn over his duties to portfolio managers Nicholos Venditti and David Ashley at the end of 2019.
“We’ve had a succession plan in place for a number of years because we want the clients to be comfortable with all of the team,” Ryon told The Bond Buyer. “Thornburg’s municipal bond strategies are in great hands.”
Over his career, Ryon has weathered the aftermath of the 1986 federal tax rewrite, the 1987 stock market crash, the 1994 Orange County, California, bankruptcy, the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2017 tax reform. His 2008 arrival at Thornburg came at the height of the global financial crisis.
“Over the past decade, Chris, Nick, Dave, and the rest of the municipal bond team have delivered on the challenging task of consistently outperforming for our clients and we are confident the team is positioned for continued success,” said Jason Brady, chief executive at Thornburg.
Ryon moved to the Santa Fe, New Mexico, firm 11 years ago after 23 years at Vanguard, followed by an abbreviated retirement and work with his alma mater Villanova University in Philadelphia. Ryon said he plans to return to Philadelphia where his wife lives and works full time.
Thornburg has grown from a fledgling firm with $12 million in its namesake bond fund in 1984 to a muni bond industry leader with $10 billion under management in 2019. Across all investments, Thornburg manages $41 billion of assets.
At Vanguard, Ryon was head of long-term and tax-exempt funds when he decided to take early retirement in 2007, just as the housing market was beginning to teeter. Watching the market upheaval from the sidelines, Ryon decided he wanted to get back in the game and contacted George Strickland, co-portfolio manager at Thornburg at the time, about a position.
Since Ryon arrived, the value of Thornburg’s muni funds has more than tripled, Venditti said.
Ryon “always believed in the fundamental philosophy to get paid to take risk,” Venditti said. “He knew how to take advantage of mispriced risk in the muni bond industry.”
Far from madding crowd of Wall Street, Thornburg’s home in Santa Fe fostered “a pretty good environment to do original thinking,” Ryon said.
Founded in 1982 by chairman Garrett Thornburg, Thornburg Investment Management is an employee-owned firm that manages eight equity mutual funds, one alternative mutual fund, and 11 fixed-income funds for individual and institutional clients.
Venditti joined Thornburg in 2010 as a fixed income research analyst and was promoted to associate portfolio manager in 2011 and portfolio manager and managing director in 2015. Prior to joining Thornburg, Venditti was assistant vice president for bond insurer FSA, now merged with Assured Guaranty Corp.
Ashley joined Thornburg as associate portfolio manager in 2011 and was named portfolio manager in 2019. He was a credit analyst for Wilmington Trust in Delaware before moving to Santa Fe.
Ryon said that when he vouches for Venditti and Ashley, he’s putting his money where his mouth is.
“They're going to continue to manage my assets and my family’s assets,” Ryon said. "I'll probably make a pretty miserable client because I'll be writing to them all the time."
