Carey leaves Oppenheimer too

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 him. Before joining OppenheimerFunds in September, he was managing director of distribution and relationship management for Fidelity'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 in its bond funds and a number of lawsuits from states over its Section 529 plans, experts said. The company's bond funds declined an average of 29% in 2008, compared with a 7.9% average decline for all bond funds, according to Morningstar Inc. E-mail Jessica Toonkel Marquez at jmarquez@investmentnews.com.