Morningstar’s investment guru Don Phillips will no longer serve as the research shop’s head of research starting next year, the company announced this afternoon. He will be replaced by Haywood Kelly, Morningstar’s head of equity, credit and structured credit research.
Although Morningstar said Phillips’ would not be retiring, the firm’s founder, chairman and CEO Joe Mansueto called the move a “life transition.” Phillips will stay on as managing director and member of the board of directors.
“Don has built a strong research team, and feels the time is right to make this life transition,” Mansueto said, in a statement.
Phillips, 51, joined Morningstar in 1986 as the company’s first mutual fund analyst. Since then, he has helped build the Morningstar mutual fund platform into an 800-pound gorilla in the mutual fund research space. He helped shape the Morningstar Style Box and Morningstar Ratings.
Kelly, 44, has been with the firm since 1991, first as a stock analyst and moving up to the position of head of equity research by 1998. He served as head of equity and fund research from 2000 to 2008, and was named head of equity and credit research in 2009.