He succeeds John Melvin who has left to join Hartford Investment Management Company (Himco) as head of portfolio management, effective 14 September, reporting to Brion Johnson, Himco president. Melvin was also chief investment officer of GSAM.
Armas, a senior portfolio manager in the GSAM London office for more than 10 years, will oversee the portfolio management investment process and implementation for insurance clients. Before leaving London, he was co-head of the global investment grade credit team which currently handles $90bn of credit assets under management.
"We wish John (Melvin) well and look forward to continuing to serve GSAM insurance clients with Matt Armas as the global head of GSAM insurance fixed income," said Michael Siegel, global head of GSAM insurance. "As a strategic focus for our firm, GSAM's insurance business has over $174bn in assets and over 60 professionals serving insurance clients' needs around the globe."
Melvin moved to GSAM from Deutsche Asset Management (now Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management) in 2009. Prior to Deutsche, he was a senior vice president for Lazard Asset Management and earlier worked for UBS Asset Management.