[5] He subsequently obtained an MA degree in Economics at the Catholic University of Leuven, having agreed to defer his entry into S.G. Warburg's graduate programme for a year in order to do so.

[10][11] When Allianz's asset management division restructured in 2011, Utermann became Global CIO and co-head of Allianz Global Investors alongside Elizabeth Corley as CEO; in a 2012 media story headlined “Mercury keeps rising at AllianzGI”, the journalist noted that the co-head structure followed “the mixed gender trail blazed by Carol Galley and Stephen Zimmerman, former co-heads of Mercury Asset Management, where both Utermann and Corley honed their craft.”[12] Utermann was sole CEO since 2016, when Corley moved into a non-executive role within the firm.

[16] In January 2020, Utermann was made a fellow of the CFA Society of the UK in recognition of his ‘exceptional service’ to the investment profession.

Despite leading an active manager, he has acknowledged perception challenges facing the industry in light of cheaper passive investing alternatives such as ETFs.

In 2014, Utermann wrote in the Financial Times that active investors needed to take concerted action to generate meaningful outperformance for clients and avoid becoming so-called closet trackers.

[19] Writing of Utermann in IPE magazine in 2018, journalist Carlo Svaluto Moreolo wrote: "It would be hard to find a more passionate supporter of active management.

[21] More recently, he has advocated the greater use of performance fees, introducing new products and share classes where the fund manager is only rewarded for the additional value created.