Oppenheimer's head of distribution exiting after five months on the job

OppenheimerFunds Inc. has lost its head of distribution, just five months after he joined the firm. On Jan 22, William C. Carey, a former president of Fidelity Investments' registered investment adviser and retirement services business, left OppenheimerFunds for personal reasons, said Jeaneen Pisarra, a spokeswoman for the firm. She added that Mr. Carey had been commuting from Boston to the firm's New York offices. OppenheimerFunds has not decided if it will replace Mr. Carey, who reported to chief executive William F. Glavin Jr. Before going to OppenheimerFunds in September, Mr. Carey was managing director of distribution and relationship management for the bank's institutional retirement, philanthropy and investments division. Mr. Carey's departure comes as a blow to OppenheimerFunds just as it was trying to get out from underneath months of bad performance among its bond funds and a number of lawsuits from states over its Section 529 plans, experts said. “It's never good to lose somebody that prominent so quickly, especially when you are trying to get your house in order,” said David Kathman, a mutual fund analyst at Morningstar Inc. The company's bond funds lost an average of 29% in 2008, compared with a 7.9% average decline for all bond funds, according to Morningstar Inc. The firm's Core Bond Fund lost 37.6% for that period. Also last year, the firm settled lawsuits with Illinois and Oregon over losses in their 529 plans.