Morningstar Shuffles Investment, Research Execs

As president, Needham reports to Morningstar chairman and chief executive Joe Mansueto, and replaces Thomas Idzorek, who held the role since 2012, and who the vendor has named to a new role as head of investment methodology and economic research, reporting jointly to Needham and global head of research Haywood Kelly.

Separately, the vendor has appointed Jeffrey Ptak head of global manager research, replacing Scott Burns, who the vendor recently named head of asset management client solutions. Ptak is currently president and chief investment officer of Morningstar Investment Services, and will transition into his new role over the first quarter of this year, reporting to Kelly.

Meanwhile, the vendor has appointed Rob Pinkerton to the newly created role of chief marketing officer, also reporting to Mansueto. Pinkerton was previously CMO at HelloWallet, a provider of online financial advice and awareness tools that Morningstar acquired last year, prior to which he held product and marketing roles at Adobe Systems, LexisNexis and Siebel Systems.