Morningstar : Appoints Jeremy Beckwith to Lead UK Morningstar Manager Research Team; Announces New Roles for Jackie Beard and Ruli Viljoen

LONDON, 17TH November 2014-Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced the appointment of Jeremy Beckwith as Director of Manager Research for Morningstar UK Limited. The company also announced new roles for Jackie Beard as Director of Manager Research Services for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Ruli Viljoen as Head of Manager Selection for Morningstar Investment Management Europe.

Beckwith brings more than three decades of investment industry experience to Morningstar, including senior investment leadership roles at Merrill Lynch and Kleinwort Benson Private Bank. Between 1990 and 1998, Beckwith led the Merrill Lynch Global Asset Management UK team responsible for managing segregated portfolios for private clients in the EMEA region. He then spent four years leading the Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Europe, Australasia, and Far East Equities team and managed approximately USD $2 billion in mutual funds and North American pension funds.

In 2003, Beckwith was appointed Chief Investment Officer for Kleinwort Benson Private Bank, where he oversaw all processes for the management of discretionary portfolios totalling GBP 4 billion. More recently, Beckwith served as Interim Chief Investment Officer for Nutmeg, an online discretionary fund manager, and was a founding partner at independent financial adviser London Wall Partners LLP. At Morningstar, he will report to Christopher Traulsen, CFA, Director of Manager Research for Morningstar in Europe.

"Jeremy is a highly regarded leader in the fields of investment research and multi-asset investing," Traulsen said. "His extensive experience in serving investors around the world provides significant additional strength to our manager research offering for advisers and their clients, both here in the United Kingdom and internationally. We are very pleased to have Jeremy join Morningstar, and we are looking forward to working with him as we continue to enhance our manager research offering."

Beard joined Morningstar in 2008 as Director of Fund Research for Morningstar UK and led the rollout of Morningstar's qualitative fund research and ratings for funds available for sale to UK investors. In 2010, she was appointed Director of Closed-End Fund Research for Morningstar UK and led the company's launch of independent analyst research and ratings for UK investment trusts. In her new role, Beard will lead the European launch of Morningstar's Manager Research Services, a customisable solution for firms requiring outsourced or additional due diligence support in the evaluation of active and passive funds, investment strategies, and asset management firms. She will continue to report to Traulsen.

"Jackie is an outstanding ambassador for Morningstar, consistently delivering the highest standards in her work for the ultimate benefit of investors. She is ideally placed in her new role to bring together the needs of professional investors with the very best of in-depth analysis and insights from Morningstar's manager research team," Traulsen said.

Viljoen joined Morningstar in 2010 with the company's acquisition of Old Broad Street Research and has served as Head of Investment Research for Morningstar's open-end manager research team in the United Kingdom. In her new role, Viljoen will lead manager selection for Morningstar Investment Management Europe, a unit of the Morningstar Investment Management group, with responsibility for driving the research efforts of the investment team to ensure best ideas are surfaced and reflected in client portfolios and panel lists. Viljoen will report to Daniel Needham, Global Chief Investment Officer for Morningstar Investment Management.

"I'm very excited to have Ruli join our group," Needham said. "She has done an exceptional job researching managers and running the UK manager research team, and this background will provide a great platform for her new role leading our manager selection function. Leveraging our extensive manager research resources, Ruli will focus on selecting managers to help produce better investing outcomes for clients of Morningstar Investment Management Europe."

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About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN) is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors. Morningstar provides data on approximately 479,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 13 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries. The company has operations in 27 countries.

About Morningstar Investment Management
The Morningstar Investment Management group, through 11 investment advisory subsidiaries, creates custom investment solutions that combine award-winning research and global resources with proprietary Morningstar data. With approximately $169 billion in assets under advisement and management as of 30 Sept. 2014, the Morningstar Investment Management group provides comprehensive retirement, investment advisory, and portfolio management services for financial institutions, plans sponsors, and financial advisors around the world.

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