Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management Ltd. announced the appointment of Hanif Mamdani as chief investment officer on Tuesday. The appointment was effective as of June 13.

“This is an exciting development for PH&N,” said John Montalbano, president. “The role of CIO incorporates such things as overseeing PH&N’s Investment Committee, corporate risk management, review of best practices in research and product development, performance analysis, and the support of recruiting efforts. With his expertise in corporate finance, credit analysis, and risk management, Hanif brings tremendous experience and credibility to this role.

“Hanif has built an outstanding reputation within the Canadian investment management community as the individual responsible for the trading execution and portfolio strategy of corporate bonds at PH&N,” said Montalbano. “He has been responsible not only for outstanding performance results in PH&N’s corporate bond mandates and pooled funds, but also for driving the development of a variety of new fixed income products and strategies to benefit our clients.”

Mamdani maintains his responsibilities within PH&N’s fixed-income department, including management of the PH&N High Yield Bond Fund, which has one of the best performance records in its category, and the PH&N Absolute Return Fund. He remains a member of PH&N’s Asset Mix Committee, Risk Management Committee and Board of Directors. As CIO, Mamdani will be involved in each of the firm’s research areas, reflecting PH&N’s team-oriented structure and culture.

Mamdani holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology and a Master of Science degree from Harvard University. He is both a shareholder and director of PH&N. Prior to joining PH&N in 1998, he spent 10 years actively involved in the U.S. capital markets at Salomon Brothers and Credit Suisse First Boston. For the final two years of that period, he was the head of a proprietary trading desk at Salomon Brothers, dealing in convertible bonds, equity derivatives and preferred shares. Previously, Mamdani had worked in the company’s capital markets division, helping structure and execute equity-linked financing for over 200 Canadian and U.S. corporate issuers.