Poulin to lead Bank of America unit’s product-development endeavors. Columbia Management, Bank of America’s investment-management arm, has made former Fidelity Investments executive William Poulin head of its retail and Institutional product-strategy and development efforts. Based in Boston, he reports to Columbia’s COO Roger Sayler.

“Bill Poulin is an experienced and talented leader who will help us build upon our recent record of achievement in product management and development,” says Columbia Management's president Keith Banks. “He will be instrumental in driving our new product development effort which in turn will ensure that we continue to serve our clients at a high level.”

LifeHarbor

Poulin’s background is varied. Though most recently a v.p. with Fidelity, Poulin is known in the managed-money space for his stint as director of marketing for LifeHarbor, a Boston-based start-up that was acquired by enterprise software maker Vestmark late in 2004. LifeHarbor’s portfolio-management technology is a major part of Vestmark’s outsourced offering to separate-account managers.

Before joining LifeHarbor in 2000, Poulin was a v.p. of investment banking with Putnam Lovell in New York. Prior to that, he spent eight years at John Hancock Funds, latterly as head of marketing and corporate development.

Boston-based Columbia had around $361 billion in assets under management on 31 December 2005. –FWR

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