Sometimes to move forward, you have to downsize. In Stephen W. Keep’s case, he’s moved up to a larger company, but it’s in a much smaller market. Keep has joined Conning & Co. but it has meant relocating his career from Boston to Hartford.
Keep, who joined Conning on May 18, will be responsible for marketing Conning’s investment services and products to insurance companies in the U.S. and Bermuda. He will join forces with Conning’s client business development group. Conning manages in excess of $70 billion in assets for insurance clients.
Prior to joining Conning, Keep was business development manager for insurance companies at Wellington Management, where he marketed a broad range of investment approaches to both regional and global insurers.
“Conning is one of the recognized leaders in insurance asset management,” Keep said, adding that it’s the third largest in the U.S. “It’s a great opportunity. Wellington was roughly seventh.”
Keep began his career in 1985 at Goldman Sachs where he advanced to vice president in the fixed income currency & commodity division.
Moving 100 miles west via the Massachusetts Turnpike was largely based on Conning’s good name, Keep said. “It’s really a reputational thing,” he said during a phone interview. “This is an upper echelon firm. I’ve known individuals here over a long period of time.”
At this point, Keep has no plans to relocate his family. He is the married father of two sons, ages 11 and 8. “The kids are entrenched in their schools and sports teams,” he explained. “I joke that I virtually live on the Mass Pike.”
He’s also firmly entrenched in bringing his boys to and from their various sporting events on weekends. “My hobby is driving them to sporting events,” he joked.
His real hobby, though, finds him behind the lens at the same sporting events he has chauffeured his boys to. Keep said it fits in well because he’s been able to chronicle his children as they have grown through the years.
