Fast Track: Janus operations chief has his hands full

It has been on-the-job draining for Girard C. Miller since he joined Janus Capital Group Inc. on July 7.

As the person filling the newly created position of chief operating officer at the embattled mutual fund company, he is expected to put out fires, light fires under people and still serve as the voice of discretion.

Mr. Miller, 52, is being charged with finding the right way to spend the $1 billion that the Denver-based company expects to receive for the sale of its stake in Kansas City-based DST Systems Inc. Janus plans to use half that amount to make acquisitions of funds and/or fund groups (InvestmentNews, Sept. 29).

Janus CEO Mark Whiston has final say over those purchases, but Mr. Miller will see to it that the acquisitions generate a satisfactory return on investment.

Meanwhile, Mr. Miller is trying to bring harmony to existing Janus departments and make them work as a unit.

All that might be responsibility enough. Yet it is also Mr. Miller’s charge to revamp the internal controls, as Mr. Whiston has been promising investors since New York Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer sued the company early last month.

Mr. Miller had some warning: Mr. Spitzer subpoenaed Janus just a week after his arrival.

None of this fazes the industry veteran, who continues to train for the Oct. 26 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington despite his grueling work schedule.

“I have been known to be a turnaround artist,” Mr. Miller says. “I have not looked back one day.”

Robert Barkin, spokesman for ICMA Retirement Corp., Mr. Miller’s former employer, says that Mr. Miller was indeed instrumental in the Washington-based company’s turnaround.

“He has a lot of energy, ” Mr. Barkin says. “He’s good at marshaling a lot of forces and getting things going in the right direction.”

While Mr. Miller was ICMA’s president and chief executive from 1993 to 2003, ICMA’s assets grew to $17 billion, from $3 billion.

The turnaround effort begins with putting money managers in the corporate loop.

Mr. Miller is making Janus’ portfolio managers aware of how the company’s other departments operate. They are the ones who meet with institutional investors, and they need to be able to speak with authority for the whole firm, he says.

Adding to Mr. Miller’s challenge is the fact that Janus was, in effect, spun off as of Jan. 31 into its own corporate structure, absorbing the operations of Kansas City-based Stilwell Financial Inc., the investment management holding company set up by Kansas City Southern Industries Inc., which acquired Janus in 1984.

That means Janus is establishing operations as a free-standing unit for the first time.

Mr. Miller’s clean hands and gung-ho attitude have been saving graces, according to his colleagues at Janus.

“He’s just a natural leader, and people have taken to him right away,” says Loren Starr, chief financial officer at Janus Capital Management Inc.

Mr. Miller says that the crisis at Janus is regrettable, but it has given him the mandate to get things done.

“Normally, there’s that corporate dance where a newcomer has to dance with existing staff,” he adds. “It’s been a terrific opportunity for me to work shoulder to shoulder to develop the collegiality.”

The collegiality factor is also helped by the fact that Mr. Miller and Mr. Whiston worked together at Fidelity Investments in Boston several years ago.

At Fidelity from 1987 to 1993, Mr. Miller was senior vice president and head of the company’s national business unit for public funds, including defined-benefit and defined-contribution retirement plans, and Treasury management products.