Director, Institutional Sales

Position Summary

Responsible for managing and leading the institutional sales group which is the primary point of contact in developing opportunities within the "Institutional Channel": Hedge Funds, Foundations and Endowments, Pension Plans, Family Office, Private Banks, Asset Management Companies, Derivative Sales Desks. With senior sales staff, help develop sales opportunities through direct and indirect contact with the portfolio managers, Chief Investment Officers, consultants, analysts and traders that either work for or closely with these firms. Position the distribution of ProFund’s products into institutional strategies and portfolios.



Primary Responsibilities

  1. Provide strategic leadership and guidance for the distribution efforts at ProFund Advisors LLC within the "Institutional Channel".
  2. Develop business plans for the institutional sales group to exploit opportunities within the Channel; prioritize partner relationships, individual and department goals, performance metrics, performance plans, compensation plans, and reporting mechanisms to facilitate department goals.
  3. Give direction to the efforts to identify large Hedge Fund, Mutual Fund and Separate Account investment managers, Foundation and Endowment portfolios.
  4. Facilitate new processes, tools, communications, training and methodologies to ensure sales program's success across teams and departments throughout the company. Serve with other departmental management to facilitate relationships among members of these various departments and locations in order to achieve the organization's goals and objectives.
  5. Working thru the Director of Distribution, Collaborate and coordinate Distribution team efforts with marketing, legal, portfolio, management, internal systems, product management and internal ProFund Advisors LLC teams to facilitate identifying viability and implementation of new business opportunities This includes identifying issues or barriers (legal, operational, or other), providing cost/benefit analysis, projecting timelines, and facilitating activities along with other ProFund Advisors LLC management.
  6. Facilitate programs to gather requirements and features from customers and their communities to augment sales, marketing, development, support, product management, and business partnerships, and others as needed.
  7. Identify revenue programs and facilitate finance, legal and sales practices.
  8. Review resource planning, reporting, territories, incentives and communications for the distribution team to ensure alignment with department and company goals.
  9. Ensure reporting and communications is frequent and bi-directional.
  10. Provide guidance and direction to staff. Serve as mentor to staff members.
  11. Attract, hire and retain A-player sales talent.
  12. Contributes to the efforts to identify large Hedge Fund, Mutual Fund and Separate Account investment managers, Foundation and Endowment portfolios.
  13. Develops strategic and tactical business plans for group.
  14. Position ProFund’s products to be used in and with various investment management strategies including portfolio construction, liquidity creation and hedging.
  15. Represent ProFunds by actively participating in industry and client conferences, seminars, and trade shows.
  16. Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.



Education and Experience

  1. BA/BS degree.
  2. 15 or more years experience in a business development / sales capacity within the financial services, investment management, and institutional sales arena, couple with 5 or more years managing a team of sales staff.
  3. Knowledge of exchange traded funds preferred.
  4. CIMA, CFP, CFA preferred.
  5. FINRA Series 7, 24 and 63 licenses.



Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

  1. Demonstrated people-oriented management experience, leading a team of people, and a minimum of 15 years overall business experience and at least five years within the mutual fund industry.
  2. Talented investment management sales and marketing professional with proven experience within the Hedge Fund, Mutual Fund and Separate Account client arena.
  3. A meaningful understanding of the investment process of Pension Plans, Non-Profits, Hedge Funds, Asset Management Companies, Foundations and Endowments.
  4. Familiarity with the disciplines within a portfolio management organization and to organize and execute tasks.
  5. Must be self-directed, highly self-motivated, focused and results-orientated.
  6. Key competencies: must possess proven decision making skills, superb interpersonal and presentation skills, superior business development and relationship management skills, excellent public speaking skills, possess and consistently exercise sound judgment, ability to develop creative value-added solutions, and verbal and written communication skills.
  7. Ability to appropriately handle conflict and client service related issues.
  8. Sound understanding of hedge funds, mutual funds, separate accounts, exchange-traded funds, index derivatives, and related products and investment strategies strongly preferred.
  9. Ability to travel as required.
  10. Must enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to work with a rapidly growing, innovative and successful group of entrepreneurial professionals.

Deliverables, Success Measurements: Initial 6-month period:

  • Understand and be familiar with target market by type: Hedge Funds, Foundations and Endowments, Pension Plans, Family Office, Private Banks, Asset Management Companies, Derivative Sales Desks and by opportunity (currently working w/alternative products, asset size)
  • Prioritize target list of Hedge funds, Foundation/Endowments, Trust Banks, or other institutional companies
  • Help to create contact list of national players at targeted companies
  • Develop strategy and implement tactical plans for the institutional sales force
  • Establish reporting mechanism and brief manager on status and results of execution of plan
  • Work with Managing Director of Distribution to develop 2011 sales plan and compensation plan for institutional team