Franklin Equity Group Appoints New Head of Portfolio Construction and Quantitative Risk

By: Franklin Templeton via Business Wire

May 21, 2025 at 09:37 AM EDT

New position strengthens Franklin Equity Group’s risk management capabilities across equity strategies

Franklin Templeton today announced the appointment of Surajit Ray to the newly created position of Head of Portfolio Construction and Quantitative Risk in Franklin Templeton's Franklin Equity Group (FEG). He will be based in the firm’s New York City office.

Reporting to Jonathan Curtis, Franklin Equity Group’s Chief Investment Officer, Ray will work in partnership with FEG’s various strategy teams to enhance the group’s systematic risk-aware portfolio construction processes. This crucial role will help portfolio strategy teams align investments to a risk framework that assesses a range of scenarios and outcomes.

“Surajit brings over 24 years of experience in risk measurement and management across asset classes in both public and private equity markets,” said Curtis. “In this role, he will leverage his expertise in complex risk analytics and portfolio optimization to help strengthen risk management discipline across our strategies, supporting our investment teams as they focus on finding innovation-driven growth opportunities in the market.”

Franklin Equity Group manages over $120 billion in assets across global, US and sector-specific strategies. Grounded by the belief that continuous innovation is the most durable path to unlocking value and sustaining long-term growth, their investment approach is fundamentally driven and focused on bottom-up stock selection that carefully evaluates the quality of a business, its long-term growth potential, and its intrinsic value. Many members of FEG’s global team of investment professionals are based in Silicon Valley, the innovation capital of the world, which provides unparalleled access to the world’s most interesting public and private companies.

Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, Ray was the Head of Investment Risk Analysis at the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Sovereign Wealth Fund, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He also spent 14 years at Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) in New York, serving as Head of Global Equity Risk and Head of Quantitative Research and Model Management. Ray’s experience also includes quantitative and research roles at Bear-Sterns in New York and MSCI-Barra in Berkeley, California.

Ray has a Ph.D. in economics with a specialization in econometrics from the University of Iowa. He also has an MS in economics from the State University of New York, Buffalo, as well as an MA in econometrics and mathematical economics from the University of Mumbai.

About Franklin Templeton

Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE: BEN] is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 150 countries. Franklin Templeton’s mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company offers specialization on a global scale, bringing extensive capabilities in fixed income, equity, alternatives, and multi-asset solutions. With more than 1,500 investment professionals, and offices in major financial markets around the world, the California-based company has over 75 years of investment experience and $1.53 trillion in assets under management as of April 30, 2025. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.com and follow us on LinkedIn, X and Facebook.