Evergreen Funds, First Union Corp.'s $56.7 billion fund company, has hired Phillip Foreman to manage its $2.1 billion Growth and Income Fund.
Mr. Foreman, 41, joined the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank this week from Washington Mutual Inc. in Seattle, where he also managed a growth and income portfolio.
Mr. Foreman succeeds Stephen Lieber and Gary Busser, who had co-managed the fund.
Mr. Busser left Evergreen this month to pursue other interests, a spokesman said. Mr. Lieber, who co-founded Evergreen, remains at the company where he manages other portfolios, including the Evergreen Masters Fund which debuted recently.
As co-chief executive of Evergreen Asset Management Corp., Purchase, N.Y., Mr. Lieber will be Mr. Foreman's boss, the spokesman said.
Mr. Foreman is a 13-year veteran in investment management and had been at Wamu since 1991, the Evergreen spokesman said.
He will be based in Purchase. Wamu has not yet appointed a successor to Mr. Foreman, a bank spokeswoman said.