Oaktree Capital CEO Jay Wintrob to Step Down in 2024

Oaktree Capital Management announced that CEO Jay Wintrob will retire during the first quarter of 2024, and that Robert O’Leary and Armen Panossian will succeed him as co-CEOs.

O’Leary is portfolio manager for the alternative investments manager’s global opportunities strategy, and Panossian is Oaktree’s head of performing credit. They will assume their new roles when Wintrob departs next year.

Oaktree, which has approximately $172 billion in assets under management, said the new CEOs will focus mainly on overseeing the organization and on performance of the firm’s investment teams, while continuing to lead two of its key investment areas. The company also said that as part of the transition it has named General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer Todd Molz as chief operating officer to oversee the day-to-day management of the firm, with all non-investment functions reporting to him.

O’Leary, Panossian, and Molz will join the executive committee, along with Co-Chairmen Howard Marks and Bruce Karsh, and Vice Chairman John Frank.

“We’re delighted to elevate these three outstanding, long-tenured Oaktree professionals,” Marks said in a release. “With 54 years of combined experience at the firm, they exemplify the Oaktree culture, with its emphasis on risk control and taking the high road.”

O’Leary currently leads the global opportunities strategy group’s investment activities in North America, and contributes to the analysis, portfolio construction, and management of the global opportunities and value opportunities strategies. Before joining Oaktree in 2002, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, and prior to that was at private equity firm Orion Partners, where he focused on private company investments.

As managing director and Oaktree’s head of performing credit, Panossian oversees the firm’s liquid and private credit strategies, and is a portfolio manager within its global private debt and global credit strategies. He joined Oaktree in 2007 from Pequot Capital Management, where he worked on their distressed debt strategy.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work and invest alongside Bob and Armen for the better part of two decades,” Karsh said in the statement. “Not only have they distinguished themselves as highly skilled investors, but also as leaders who have recruited, developed, and retained strong teams.”

Molz currently oversees Oaktree’s compliance, internal audit and administration functions, and all legal activities, including fund formation, acquisitions and other special projects. Before joining the company in 2006, Molz was a partner at the Los Angeles-based law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, where he focused on tax and structuring aspects of complex business transactions.