Veteran investor promoted to lead strategic market and investment insights for the US financial services group’s $1.2 trillion asset manager.

Nuveen has promoted Saira Malik (pictured) to chief investment officer to drive strategy for TIAA’s $1.2 trillion assets.

In the newly-created role, Malik will “drive market and investment insights and deliver client asset allocation views from across the firm’s investment teams,” the firm said. She will also lead the firm’s global investment committee, while maintaining her portfolio management and leadership responsibilities for Nuveen’s $450 billion global equity business.

She will still be lead portfolio manager for the CREF Stock strategy and a listed portfolio manager for CREF Growth and CREF Global Equities strategies, in addition to developing consensus views alongside colleagues from across the firm’s investments.

Malik will report to William T Huffman, president of Nuveen Asset Management and head of Nuveen fixed income and equities. 

“Saira is dedicated to Nuveen’s mission of delivering strong returns to help secure the financial futures of clients and has been an essential part of the firm’s proud history and culture of deep investment expertise for nearly two decades,” Huffman said. “We are excited for Saira to leverage her skills and insights as our investment teams source additional alpha strategies and think in holistic portfolio terms to serve our clients as true partners.”

Malik, who has 26 years of investment management experience, joined Nuveen in 2003 as head of global equities research, before becoming head of global equities portfolio management, followed by chief investment officer of global equities. Prior to joining Nuveen, she was a small cap growth portfolio and equity research analyst at JP Morgan Asset Management.

A chartered financial analyst, she has a bachelor’s degree in economics from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and a master’s degree in finance from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Malik writes a weekly equity market commentary and appears on financial news networks such as CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business. She has been profiled in Kiplinger’s and Barron’s, which ranked her among the top 100 most influential women in US finance.

As of September 30, Nuveen had $1.2 trillion in assets under management across equities, fixed income, real estate, private markets, natural resources, and other alternatives and responsible investments.