Manager SelectionJune 22, 2023

MetLife CIO Steven Goulart to Retire in August

The firm has a mandatory age-65 retirement policy, although it has been waived in the past; several corresponding promotions were also announced.

Reported by Michael Katz

MetLife Inc. announced that CIO Steven Goulart will retire at the end of August after more than 17 years with the company. He is also president of MetLife Investment Management, the firm’s institutional asset management business with approximately $600 billion in total assets under management.

“I want to congratulate Steve on his retirement and thank him for his myriad contributions, which have helped MetLife keep its promises to clients and build a leading institutional asset manager,” MetLife’s president and CEO, Michel Khalaf, said in a release. “Steve has been instrumental in the design of our enterprise strategy and in the progress we have made in delivering on our commitments.”

According to MetLife, Goulart is retiring because of the company’s mandatory age-65 retirement policy. However, MetLife has waived that policy in the past, such as in 2016 for Steven Kandarian, then chairman, president and CEO, who retired three years later.

The company also announced that after Goulart’s departure, MetLife Chief Financial Officer John McCallion will take over leadership of MetLife Investment Management, while Chief Risk Officer Marlene Debel will lead MetLife Insurance Investments. Ramy Tadros, currently regional president of MetLife’s U.S. business, will lead MetLife Holdings.

MetLife announced a search for a successor to Goulart as president of MetLife Investment Management, intending to consider both internal and external candidates. The position will report to McCallion and lead the institutional asset management business, with clients including pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, insurance companies and corporate plans.

Goulart joined MetLife in 2006 as a senior vice president to lead the company’s mergers and acquisitions unit and rose to senior managing director and head of MetLife’s portfolio management. He was named treasurer in 2009 before being promoted to CIO in 2011, overseeing both the MetLife general account portfolio and its investment management business for unaffiliated institutional investors.

In 2012, Goulart led the launch and development of MetLife Investment Management, and in 2017, he oversaw the transition of Brighthouse Financial Inc.’s $80 billion investment portfolio management to MetLife, as well as the $250 million acquisition of investment manager Logan Circle Partners from Fortress Investment Group.

Prior to working at MetLife, Goulart was a senior managing director in Bear Stearns’ financial institutions group. Prior to joining Bear Stearns in 2001, he was a managing director in Morgan Stanley’s global insurance group, where he co-led U.S. client coverage of the industry. Before that, he was a managing director in the financial institutions group at Merrill Lynch, starting out in the fixed-income division.

McCallion has been MetLife CFO since 2018 and previously served as treasurer, in regional and business CFO roles and as head of investor relations. Debel, who joined the company in 2011 as treasurer, was named CRO in 2019 after previously leading MetLife’s retirement and income solutions business.

Chuck Scully will continue to lead investment strategy for the MetLife general account, serving as CIO of MetLife Insurance Investments and reporting to Debel.