Metropolitan West Asset Management

Tad Rivelle is the firm's Chief Information Officer and has led investment strategy since co-founding the firm in 1996. Stephen Kane serves as Deputy CIO. They are supported by co-heads of investment management, Laird Landmann and David Lippman (per the firm's regulatory filings and public records).

Metropolitan West operates as a distinct investment division within TCW Group, which acquired the firm in 2009. The founders retained control over investment decisions and branding — an arrangement that preserves autonomy while leveraging TCW's distribution and operational support.

The firm specializes in fixed-income investing, with strategies that include investment-grade credit, high-yield debt, mortgage-backed securities, and structured credit. It also manages a private credit platform through its parent's alternative assets division. Its core expertise is credit-intensive fixed income for institutional and high-net-worth clients.

Metropolitan West primarily manages commingled funds that invest in public and private credit markets. It offers strategies across both liquid credit (corporate bonds, mortgages) and illiquid alternatives (private credit, infrastructure debt) through TCW's platform. The firm does not commonly serve as a lead direct lender but participates in larger syndicated and private placements.

Metropolitan West is a wholly owned, integrated unit of TCW Group. TCW Group is majority-owned by The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager. The firm's founders and key investment professionals remain as employees and partners within the broader TCW structure.

The firm's public filings indicate ESG factors are considered in investment processes for some strategies, typically through negative screening and engagement rather than blanket exclusion. Its parent TCW Group has a broader responsible investing policy. The firm does not market itself as a dedicated ESG manager.

With $160B in AUM, Metropolitan West ranks as a mid-to-large specialist fixed-income manager in the US. Its structure as an autonomous unit within a larger alternative manager (TCW) is rare — most similar firms have been fully integrated after acquisition. Its concentrated credit focus differentiates it from diversified managers covering equities and alternatives.