American Century's Joe Schultz just hired a chief for "probably the most important strategic effort in the years to come."

Andy Provencher American Century Investments Vice President and Head of Platform Sales

Schultz confirms that Andy Provencher is joining the Kansas City, Missouri-based mutual fund shop in the newly-created position of vice president and head of platform sales. Provencher reports to Schultz, who is senior vice president and head of intermediary sales at American Century [profile].

Provencher most recently served as head of U.S. retail distribution at BNY Mellon Investment Management. He left BNY Mellon in September. Also in September, Paul Sari became co-head of global strategic accounts and Joe Moran became head of intermediary sales within Americas distribution. A BNY Mellon spokesman tells MFWire that Provencher's duties "were absorbed within the existing North American distribution team."

American Century already has a "very robust" national accounts team of 24. Now Provencher will build out the platform sales team, which currently includes four other people.

"We've had a team developing over the last couple of years," Schultz tells MFWire. "It was clear from the beginning that we were going to put a leader in place to run the team."

"This is one of the core components of our distribution strategy, this engagement with the professional buyers" like analysts and model portfolio construction teams, Schultz adds. "We want to invest in going deeper."

Schultz says that "three macro factors" are driving the increasing importance of platform sales: client consolidation, platform consolidation within firms, and platform convergence. So, over the past three months American Century teamed up with the recruiting specialists over at Korn Ferry to search for a leader for the new effort. Schultz wanted "somebody who understood clients but understood them in a way that was beyond the surface level, somebody who has an understanding across channels, ... [who] understood the next level, not only stated client needs but the things are underneath the hood that you really need to understand."

Provencher, Schultz says, brings "industry leadership" and "a very strong set of client navigation skills and technical skills that go alongside that."

"Andy [Provencher] is our best fit," Schultz says.

Looking ahead, Schultz hints that he expects that Provencher will be expanding the platform sales force.

"The resource depth will most likely increase," Schultz says. "It's up to Andy [Provenhcer] as to what and how that looks like."

Provencher is an alumnus of Fairfield University. He worked at BNY Mellon for two years. Prior to that he worked at Gold Bullion International and Neuberger Berman. 

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