PIMCO has hired Geoffrey Johnson as an Executive Vice President and Global Equity Portfolio Manager. He will begin with the firm in April 2012 and will be based in the Newport Beach office.

"Geoffrey is an extremely talented equity investor with an established track record of success in the global long/short equity space," says Neel Kashkari, Managing Director and Head of Global Equities for PIMCO. "His addition to our team is another important step in PIMCO's build-out of our global active equity investing platform.”

Prior to joining PIMCO, Johnson was managing partner of Catamount Capital Management, a boutique investment management firm where he also served as portfolio manager. Catamount manages several investment strategies, including a long/short equity hedge fund which was established in 2003. Earlier in his career, Johnson was founder and president of Direct Response, Inc. He earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and an MA and BA in Political Science from the University of Connecticut. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder.

At PIMCO, Johnson will establish and lead a global long/short active equity strategy. This will be PIMCO's fourth active equity solution since it established its equity investment platform in April 2010 following the successful launch of its global deep value strategy, Pathfinder, in April 2010, global emerging markets strategy in April 2011, and global dividend strategy in January 2012.