(Bloomberg) -- Jeff Runnfeldt, global head of equities at Balyasny Asset Management, is leaving the hedge fund firm amid lackluster performance this year. 

Chief Investment Officer Dmitry Balyasny will take over the role and help build out the senior team, according to an investor familiar with the decision, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel moves. 

“We will use this opportunity to aggressively improve all aspects of the equities franchise and take it to the next level,” he said Monday in a letter to clients. 

A spokesman for the Chicago-based firm, which employs about 400 investment professionals across its equities business, declined to comment. 

Balyasny, which oversees about $20 billion, has struggled this year, returning just 2% through August and trailing peers including Citadel and Millennium Management. 

Runnfeldt, who was the firm’s first head of global equities, joined Balyasny in 2018 after working two stints at Ken Griffin’s Citadel. 

The first lasted a decade, when Runnfeldt rose to become co-head of global equities. He returned a few years later and ran the Ravelin Capital equities unit for 18 months. That team was later folded into Citadel’s global equities business.

(Updates with investor letter in third paragraph.)

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