Veteran fund manager Bill Kanko has left AIM Funds Management Inc. to pursue other interests, the company said Monday, while also announcing the realignment of the management of Kanko’s two funds.

“Effective immediately, Trimark Fund and Trimark Select Growth Fund will be managed by two distinct portfolio management teams, rather than one,” the company said in a release. “The decision to split the four-person team that had previously steered both funds was precipitated by the departure of team-member Bill Kanko, who has left AIM Trimark to pursue other interests.”

Kanko, who began his investment career in 1981, joined Trimark Financial Corp. in the 1985, leaving in 1994 to establish Bluewater Investment Management Inc. and ultimately ending up at Mackenzie Financial Corp. Kanko was lured back to Trimark in 1999 as part of new team the company hoped would help reversed its then-faltering fortunes. Trimark is now part of AIM.

Kanko said in a statement he has decided to take time off before pursuing “the next phase of my career.”

“I do regret leaving such a fine group of investment professionals. It has been a privilege to work with and learn from some of the best portfolio managers in the country,” Kanko said. “I can assure unitholders that their money remains in very capable hands.”

AIM said Tye Bousada, who has co-managed with Kanko for four years, will assume lead responsibility for Trimark Fund. He will be joined by Dana Love. Long-serving Trimark veterans, Richard Jenkins and Judith Adams, who also both co-managed with Kanko, will manage Trimark Select Growth Fund, with Jenkins in the lead role. “In total, the three managers have more than 12 years of investment experience working with the two funds, while the team has more than 55 years of combined industry experience,” AIM said.

AIM said “more than seven managers” have helped guide the fund since Trimark Fund’s inception in 1981.