MutualFundWire.com: Fresh Off a Post-Deal Rebrand, a Small Fund Shop Builds a Sales Force

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Friday, May 13, 2016

Fresh Off a Post-Deal Rebrand, a Small Fund Shop Builds a Sales Force

Jerry Szilagyi is building out a sales force for his latest mutual fund shop acquisition.

Jerry Szilagyi
Chief Executive Officer
Catalyst Capital, AlphaCentra, USA Mutuals

Szilagyi serves as CEO of Catalyst Capital Advisors, AlphaCentric, and USA Mutuals, and now he also leads Rational Funds [profile] (known as Huntington Funds prior to the deal that closed at the beginning of the year). Dan Murphy joined Rational in January and has so far built an eight-wholesaler team. Watch Murphy and Szilagyi to add seven more people to the Rational sales team.

"We have several external wholesalers that are in various stages of onboarding, and we will be looking to bring on additional internal wholesalers also," Szilagyi tells MFWire.

Robert Carey joined Rational as regional vice president covering Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. An alumnus of Union College and Fordham, Carey most recently served as a regional wholesale manager for Accelerated Capital Group, and he previously worked at Canard Capital and BH Securities.

MFWire could not reach ACG president Wayne Miller for comment on how Carey's duties are being handled.

Charlottesville, Virginia-based Matt Maiers now covers North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia for Rational. He's an alumnus of the University of Delaware. And like Murphy, Maiers most recently worked at recently-deceased TAMP Curian Capital.

George Mihalko now covers New Jersey for Rational. He's an alumnus of Rowan University and most recently worked at Fidelity. He previously worked with several other firms, including Lord Abbett and Wells Fargo.

Alan Miller now covers Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah for Rational. He's an alumnus of the University of Iowa and most recently spent 14 years at MetLife. Prior to that he worked with AXA Equitable, Pilgrim America Securities, and Balboa Life and Casualty.

Miller and Guillermo Nodarse both work for Proteus Equity Group, Nodarse's own independent wholesaling company. For Rational, Nodarse covers Florida. Nodarse is an alumnus of Stanford. Prior to launching Proteus this year, Nodarse worked with Realty Capital Securities, Transamerica Capital, and MetLife.

Mark Yandura joined Rational from Huntington Funds and is now an external wholesaler.

Kevin Slattery joined Rational in December as a regional sales consultant and internal wholesaler. An alumnus of Colby Sawyer College, Slattery previously worked at K & M Management, Phoenix Realty Group, Benistar Administrative Services, Windmill Capital, and even served as an advisor with Wells Fargo.

The Rational sales team is "totally separate" from the AlphaCentric, Catalyst, and USA Mutuals sales teams.

"Our existing sales team under Catalyst already has a pretty robust lineup of products," Szilagyi says. "We decided to keep to [the old Huntington funds] as a separate brand and hire a separate sales force for the funds."

Rational has about $200 million in AUM across five mutual funds. The four sibling fund shops have a combined $4.5 billion in AUM and about 100 people.

Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=54032

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