Tech Fund Manager to Leave T. Rowe Price

Charles “Chip” Morris has stepped down as manager of the T. Rowe Price Science & Technology fund and will leave the seventh-biggest U.S. mutual fund firm in March.

Morris, who joined Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. as a technology analyst in 1987 and has managed the fund since 1991, will become a partner at Integral Capital Partners in San Francisco.

Michael Sola, who has helped run Science & Technology for the last six years, has taken over management of the $5.3-billion fund. Sola also runs the $28-million T. Rowe Price Developing Technologies fund.

Science & Technology has lost 44% in the last 12 months through Tuesday, beating just 34% of its technology fund peers.