Baltimore, Md., USA - March 13, 2015, Baltimore, Md., USA - Legg Mason Inc., a global asset management firm, announced the appointment of Ursula Schliessler as its chief administrative officer.
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Ms. Schliessler has been in senior roles with Legg Mason or predecessor firms for approximately 27 years, with a brief interruption between 2007 and 2010.
She is currently Head of Global Distribution Business Management for Legg Mason, managing day to day operations and aligning strategic initiatives to support the growth of Legg Mason’s retail business.
In this role, she is a member of Legg Mason’s international distribution business legal
entity Boards and numerous internal business and operating committees, including the International and US Risk and Operating Committees and Legg Mason’s Global Operating Committee.
Her expertise spans product development and maintenance, sales strategy, regulatory, compliance and fiduciary responsibilities and business process design and implementation.
Ms. Schliessler was with Citibank and Citigroup Asset Management in roles of increasing responsibility in a number of countries from 1984-2005, and worked to transition international product offerings to Legg Mason through December 2006.
From 2007 to January 2009, she was Head of International Product Development and Management for Morgan Stanley Investment Management. She established UAS Global Solutions, Ltd, a management consultancy specifically focused on asset management before rejoining Legg Mason in 2010.
She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Economics and a Master of Commerce degree in Business Economics from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ms. Schliessler, based out of London, will assume her role at the beginning of April, 2015. She is replacing Jennifer Murphy, who will join Legg Mason’s largest investment affiliate, Western Asset, as its Chief Operating Officer.
Ms. Murphy is Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Legg Mason, Inc., a role she assumed in April 2013. AsCAO, she oversees the Firm’s Global Fund Accounting, Technology, Human Resources, Risk Management, Internal Audit, Fund Boards and Real Estate/Corporate Services divisions.
She is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.
Prior to her current role, she served as President and CEO of Legg Mason Capital Management (LMCM). She first joined Legg Mason in 1986 as a Securities Analyst. During her tenure with LMCM, Ms. Murphy held diverse business and investment roles, including serving as COO, CFO and then manager of LMCM's research team, risk management and new product initiatives.
Her prior experience also includes three years at a strategy consulting firm. Ms. Murphy is a Director of ICI Mutual, a mutual insurance company, and Chair of Legg Mason Global Asset
Management Trust.
She earned a B.A. in Economics from Brown University and an M.B.A. with distinction from
the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Palmer Scholar. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). ■