Imposing, Combustible

Chyung, 49, cut his teeth at junk-bond powerhouse Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, and was publicly named Post Advisory’s co-CIO along with Jeremy Sagi at the end of 2013 after founder Larry Post left the firm. Sagi also departed shortly thereafter and Chyung took over as sole CIO, gaining wide latitude over Post Advisory’s operations.

Standing well over six feet tall, Chyung is an imposing figure with a notoriously combustible temperament. F-bombs are often dropped and Chyung has made a habit of barging into colleagues’ offices to dress them down, people familiar with the matter said. He brooks little dissent and will often marginalize or bully those who disagree with him, they said.

In a long-running legal spat between Post Advisory and ex-executives including Larry Post, court documents filed in late July describe employees complaining to HR personnel about a toxic workplace where “yelling, screaming, hitting or throwing objects” was the norm.

Physical Threats

According to people familiar with the situation, the allegations have piled up since -- including an incident where Chyung threatened his boss to a fight at the office -- but Chyung remains Post Advisory’s highest-ranking investment manager. And over the years, Principal, one of America’s biggest life insurers, has largely resisted calls by Larry Post and other former executives to limit Chyung’s role.

One reason might simply have to do with Post Advisory’s performance under Chyung’s stewardship. Principal owns a handful of money managers like Post Advisory and markets them to its pension clients. The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, California State Teachers’ Retirement System and the Montana Board of Investments are among its investors.

Post Advisory’s representative unconstrained high-yield account has generated an annualized return of 8.8 percent over the previous six years, according to investor documents seen by Bloomberg. That’s greater than the 7.4 percent annual gain for a broad universe of high-yield bonds.

Early Promise

Larry Post, who made his own name in high-yield debt at Drexel Burnham Lambert and Salomon Brothers, saw Chyung’s promise and suggested to the board in 2012 that the then-senior portfolio manager was a “correct choice” to be his successor, court documents showed.