American Century Investments Names Cihan Kasikara New COO

Posted October 12, 2026

Kansas City-based American Century Investments has named Cihan Kasikara its new chief operating officer.

Kasikara will work directly with chairman, chief executive officer and president, Jonathan Thomas, and oversee the company’s management, investment operations, technology, transformation, security and administrative functions. Additionally, Kasikara will serve on American Century’s management committee, according to a release.

Kasikara brings more than 25 years of leadership experience across investment management, operations, technology and transformation to his new role. He first joined American Century in 2020 as vice president of the middle office. Since then, he has held several leadership titles, including his most recent role as senior vice president of investment transformation and service delivery.

Prior to joining American Century, Kasikara served at San Mateo, California-based Franklin Templeton in global operations, trade services and risk and controls. He worked at the investment management holding company for over 19 years, according to his LinkedIn page.

“I’m excited to take on this role and build on the strong foundation our teams have established. We’ll continue to focus on operating with the agility, discipline and innovation needed to support our long-term growth ambitions in a compliant and risk-managed fashion to best serve clients,” Kasikara said in the release.

Kasikara will be succeeding Patrick Bannigan, who has concurrently served as American Century’s COO since 2012 and CFO since 2013. Last month, American Century announced that Ben Clouse will assume the role of CFO. Bannigan is set to retire in March 2027.

As part of the announcement of Kasikara’s new role, the company also added global head of products & strategy Glen Casey to the management committee. Casey has served with American Century for over 12 years. His recent appointment bolsters the company’s expansion of its management committee. The committee is also comprised of Kevin Eknaian, head of global institutional and workplace sales; Michael Turner, head of U.S. intermediary distribution; and Rick Luchinsky, head of personal financial solutions and marketing.

Founded in 1958, American Century Investments is a global asset manager with more than $350 billion in assets. The company has approximately 1,400 employees, serving offices in Kansas City, Mo.; New York; Los Angeles. Other offices are in Santa Clara, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; London; Frankfurt, Germany; Hong Kong; and Sydney.