The NICSA board is searching for a new president, as Theresa Hamacher starts her own venture.

Theresa Hamacher Versanture Consulting President

The trade group's board hired industry recruiter George Wilbanks to find Hamacher's successor as NICSA president and posted a job description on the NICSA website. Steve Avera of Merrill, George Batejan of Janus, Barry Benjamin of PWC, Dan Houlihan of Northern Trust, and Anne Hebard-Duduch of BFDS are on the selection committee. In the meantime, Liz Jackson is serving as interim president of the operations-focused mutual fund industry trade group.

Jackson referred press inquiries to Wilbanks, and MFWire could not reach Wilbanks for comment on the search.

As for Hamacher, she left NICSA on July 1 and started Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Vensanture Consulting. The tagline for the startup is "thought leadership in the fund industry", and Hamacher is looking to do consulting work for industry players and other associations.

"I worked at NICSA for seven years," Hamacher tells MFWire. "I had a great time. I just kind of felt I was ready for some new things."

Together with former Fidelity and MFS bigwig Bob Pozen, Hamacher penned a book on the mutual industry, and they also write articles for the Financial Times. She's also starting a blog and a Twitter account, and while at NICSA she did white papers. Her writing, she says, has had a "slant towards regulations and public policy issues" around mutual funds, a slant she plans to keep with her consulting and writing work going forward. She'll also be joining a mutual fund board in the fall.

An alumnus of Yale, Hamacher worked in the industry Prudential, Bankers Trust, and Pioneer before joining NICSA in 2008. Among other roles, she rose to chief investment officer for Prudential's mutual funds and later for Pioneer. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE