U.S. Bancorp Asset Management is seizing on on a turnaround in the performance of its First American funds to push sales of the previously lackluster funds.

U.S. Bancorp currently has plans to fill fifteen empty wholesaler positions as part of that sales initiative.

The firm currently has eight external wholesaler roles and seven internal wholesaler slots to fill covering New York, Northern California and Nevada, the South, Texas and New Mexico, Florida, New England, the Mid-Atlantic and the Carolinas and Georgia.

The personnel push is also being accompanied by a mass media branding campaign that includes non-performance based advertising in outlets like the Wall Street Journal and even billboards, according to Dennis Adamski, a key account manager for U.S. Bancorp's First American Funds group.

The ads are meant to convey "who we are," said Adamski. A First American Funds ad that appeared in the Wall Street Journal in late March prominently highlights First American's Lipper awards for "Best Overall Fund Group" (2005) and "Best Mixed Equity Fund Group" (2005).

The firm has also tapped a fund industry veteran Jim Greenawalt to head distribution for the First American Funds and the firm's institutional advisory group.

Greenawalt started the newly created role on August 1, prior to that, he had been serving as a consultant to the firm for the past nine months. He also counts serving as the head of distribution for Calamos Investments in his past experience, as well as roles as chief operating officer and president of Scudder Kemper Investments. 

Correction: This article was updated to include information about First American's advertising campaign and wholesaler hiring.

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