Russell Investments Canada today announced that it has appointed Cornerstone Capital Management, a Minnesota-based money management firm, to manage a portion of Russell US Equity Fund and Sovereign US Equity Pool.

As part of this appointment, Ark Asset Management Co., Inc. is no longer a manager in the fund or the pool.

“After extensive manager research and evaluation, Russell determined Cornerstone to be a highly-ranked manager with significant outperformance potential. Cornerstone represents one of the highest forecasted alpha managers in the growth universe,” says Sadiq Adatia, who has over 10 years of investment experience and will be responsible for the ongoing management of all of the LifePoints portfolios as well as the Russell Canadian Equity Fund and the Sovereign Canadian Equity Pool.

Cornerstone’s investment philosophy is based on its belief that investment success can be achieved by purchasing long-term quality growth stocks when its research identifies one or more underappreciated opportunities.

The manager change was completed as part of Russell’s multiple-manager process, which seeks to emphasize stock selection skill while providing broad diversification in each of its pools and funds. Each year, Russell evaluates more than 1,500 outside investment manager teams globally as part of a continual research process. Through its investment management subsidiaries, Russell blends these fund assignments to create diversified portfolios of managers, investment styles and assets, which are designed to manage risk and provide consistent performance over the long term.