Manulife Mutual Funds said Tuesday that, effective immediately, portfolio management responsibilities for Manulife Emerging Markets Debt Fund will be led by Roberto Sanchez-Dahl, managing director and senior portfolio manager, and Paolo Valle, managing director and senior portfolio manager, of Manulife Asset Management.

The fixed income portion of Manulife Emerging Markets Balanced Fund will also be managed by this new team. They will be located in the Boston office of Manulife Asset Management.

“Roberto and Paolo bring to Manulife deep experience and a well-defined investment process in emerging markets debt that fits well with our expertise in fixed income, and we welcome them to the team,” said Derek Saliba, head of mutual funds ;roduct.

“They employ a fundamental investment process that seeks to add returns by actively managing allocations across and within sovereign external debt, local currency debt and corporate debt,” Saliba said.

Sanchez-Dahl most recently was with Federated Investment Management Co., since 2001 as an emerging markets senior portfolio manager, and as an investment analyst since 1997. He previously served as an sssociate in the credit department at Goldman Sachs in New York City, from 1994 to 1997. He began his career with Moody’s Investors Service in New York. He holds a BS in mechanical electric engineering from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, an associate degree in corporate finance from Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.

Valle served, since 2004, as a vice president at Federated Investment Management and most recently was an emerging markets senior portfolio manager. Previously, he was chief investment officer of Ramirez Asset Management in New York City, from 2001 to 2004. Prior to that, he was a managing partner with Valle Advisors, and a first vice president and head of the emerging markets and international fixed income group with Merrill Lynch Investment Management, both in Princeton, N.J. He holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, and a BS in business administration from the Universidad del Pacifico in Lima, Peru.

Manulife Mutual Funds is a division of Manulife Asset Management Ltd.