Janus Capital Group Inc. said Wednesday that it has hired John H. Bluher, 46, to be a senior vice president and its general counsel and chief public affairs officer, starting Aug. 23.
The Denver mutual fund company plucked Mr. Bluher from Knight Trading Group Inc. in Jersey City, where he was an executive vice president and the general counsel and director of risk management. Thomas M. Joyce, Knight’s chief executive officer and president, thanked Mr. Bluher in a press release for bringing it “to the latest stage in the regulatory process related to the company’s recently announced agreement in principle with the staffs” of the SEC and NASD in connection with institutional trading activity.
Mr. Bluher will be a member of the executive committee at Janus, which has also made a regulatory settlement in the mutual fund trading scandals. Janus CEO Steve Scheid said in a release that his new general counsel would “be charged with helping us establish and articulate prudent legal, governance, and compliance standards that reinforce our commitment to putting our fund holders first.
Mr. Bluher joined Knight as general counsel in June 2002, and the regulatory agreements in principle were announced this July 7. He was senior counsel to the SEC’s enforcement division from 1987 to 1992.
Knight supplies trade execution services in equities and derivatives for institutional and broker-dealer clients. In other company news Tuesday, it reported a loss of $47.8 million in the second quarter after taking charges totaling $58 million after taxes for regulatory matters and excess real estate capacity.
