Biz people

Jenkins favorite to be bank chief

Paul Jenkins, a three-decade Bank of Canada veteran, will probably succeed Governor David Dodge when he steps down in January, according to economists.

Twenty-eight of 36 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey said the government will appoint Jenkins (below), Dodge's senior deputy since 2003, to set monetary policy in the world's eighth-largest economy.

Pierre Duguay, one of five deputy governors, said yesterday that a decision may be made within weeks.

Selecting Jenkins, 59, would suggest Prime Minister Stephen Harper is satisfied with the bank's contribution to the longest expansion in six decades, economists said.

Jenkins also has the most experience of the four main candidates at ensuring inflation stays near policy makers' 2 percent target.

El-Erian quits Harvard post

Mohamed El-Erian (right) will return to Pacific Investment Management Co as co-chief executive officer after unexpectedly announcing he is departing from the top job at Harvard University's $34.9 billion endowment fund.

The 49-year-old El-Erian will be in position to succeed Bill Gross, the 63-year-old founder of Pimco, manager of the world's largest bond fund.

El-Erian, who left Pimco for Harvard in 2006, will share the position of chief investment officer with Gross and the CEO post with Bill Thompson, Pimco said.

In El-Erian, Pimco, which manages $693 billion in assets, gets an investment superstar as US bond yields decline to two- year lows. Harvard Management Co, custodian of the world's largest university endowment, will now need to find a chief executive for the second time in less than two years.

El-Erian had guided the fund to its best results in seven years, gaining 23 percent, or $5.7 billion, in the fiscal year ended June 30.

"It's a huge loss for Harvard," Ken Rogoff, a Harvard economics professor and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, where El-Erian worked 15 years, said in an interview.

"He is just incredibly impressive and dynamic and a brilliant person. I'm sure it won't be easy to find a replacement."

Harvard recruited El-Erian to fill the void left in September 2005 by the departure of 15-year investment chief Jack Meyer, who took almost three dozen Harvard officials to start a Boston-based hedge fund.

El-Erian said in a statement that he was returning to Newport Beach, California-based Pimco to be closer to family. He takes up his new duties at Pimco in January, the company said in a statement.

He left Pimco, a unit of Munich-based insurer Allianz AG, in February 2006 as a managing director and senior portfolio manager, responsible for emerging-market debt.

(China Daily 09/13/2007 page16)