American Equity Names Uzuner as Chief Investment Officer, Asset Management

Role will focus on deploying asset strategy, building subsidiary asset management firm

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--American Equity Investment Life Holding Company^® (NYSE: AEL) (American Equity) announced today that Tolga Uzuner will become Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Asset Management, of American Equity. Uzuner will be responsible for executing the company’s alpha asset strategy and building its subsidiary asset management firm.

Uzuner will have a significant role in American Equity’s 2.0 investment management strategy pillar. He will partner with Jim Hamalainen, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Insurance and Jeff Lorenzen, Chief Risk Officer (CRO) of AEL. Uzuner and Hamalainen will function as co-CIOs, leading one integrated investment function and partnering to broaden the company’s investment management capabilities and revenue generation sources including through partnerships.

“We look forward to having Tolga join our asset management team with his extensive background and leadership,” Bhalla said. “Tolga comes to us with wide-ranging investment expertise and a distinguished track record of success including in strategies similar to the AEL 2.0 investment management pillar.”

Previous to American Equity, Uzuner served as Managing Director of Investments at JP Morgan Chase, prior to transitioning to Apollo Global Management where he ran and built investment offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Most recently, he owned his own firm, Austra Global, providing an outsourced CIO function to new private equity entrants to insurance.

ABOUT AMERICAN EQUITY

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, is a leading issuer of fixed index annuities through independent agents, banks and broker-dealers. American Equity Investment Life Holding Company, a New York Stock Exchange listed company (NYSE: AEL), is headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa. For more information, please visit www.american-equity.com.