Russell Continues Expansion of Service Team for Midwestern Institutional Clients (Russell.com)

Russell Continues Expansion of Service Team for Midwestern Institutional Clients

TACOMA, Wash. — Russell Investment Group hired David Free as associate regional director for the U.S. Institutional Investor Services sales team. Free, based in Chicago, is dedicated to developing Russell's institutional investor relationships in the Midwestern region, consisting of 10 states including Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. He reports to Tom Morton, director, consulting and alliance management.

Free joins the institutional sales team at a time when Russell is experiencing increasing interest from defined benefit plans for Russell's strategic advice and implementation solutions, including the firm's full range of investment management capabilities, performance reporting and industry-moving research.

"We are excited to have David join our team. He is a seasoned professional who will be an excellent resource for our growing client base in the Midwestern region," said Bill Borland, managing director, U.S. Institutional Investor Services. "Our clients are looking to us to help them answer critical questions, be it related to liability matching or generating returns. Our ability to provide them with a customized, strategic approach that fully leverages the depth and breadth of our expertise and resources is a key driver of our current growth."

Free joins Russell from Northern Trust Investments, where he worked for more than 11 years, most recently as an investment relationship manager for clients that represented over $10 billion in managed assets. Free provided expertise around a variety of investment management products, including fixed income, manager of manager programs and quantitative products.

"Russell's client base and assets under management have grown considerably in the Midwest, and our decision to bring David on board represents our expectations that this growth will continue to accelerate in 2006," said Borland.

About Russell
Russell Investment Group, a global leader in multi-manager investment services, provides investment products and services in more than 39 countries. Russell manages more than $155 billion in assets for advisory clients as of December 31, 2005, and provides other financial services to clients worldwide representing more than $2.3 trillion. In 2006, and for the fifth time since 1999, Russell is ranked among the Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies to Work For in America.

Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., with additional offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Sydney, Singapore, Auckland and Tokyo.

Russell Investment Group is a registered trade name of Frank Russell Company, a Washington, USA corporation, which operates through subsidiaries worldwide. Frank Russell Company is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

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