The 20 Rising Stars of Mutual Funds 2008 - (Page 14) tion of managed accounts from the seven institutional boutique managers that comprise New York Life Investment Management. He joined MainStay from BlackRock in 2004 as national sales manager and currently sits on its management committee. He joined BlackRock in 1997 as an internal wholesaler and, throughout his time there, managed the sales desk, worked sideby-side with the national sales manager, ran various accounts and was in charge of closed-end fund origination and distribution. Coffey, a certified investment management analyst, said the biggest challenge for him was rebuilding the distribution business at MainStay. As part of a firm-wide initiative led by Blunt, he helped implement the strategy of looking beyond product development, hiring good senior wholesalers and implementing what he describes as businessbuilding tools, which resulted in sales growth of 67% from 2004 to 2005 and 31% from 2005 to 2006. One of those tools is cross-generation, or trying to keep relationships with family members of the clients of advisors the firm engages. Coffey said the firm teaches its advisors how to maintain those relationships and grow the assets of advisors’ top clients. Coffey himself would like to expand his responsibilities beyond mutual funds into other areas of asset management. “In 10 years, I see myself as president of an asset management company,” he said, adding that the industry is facing the continuation of a trend of lifestylebased investments and hopefully product diversification. Coffey credits Blunt with promoting a culture of excellence at MainStay and New York Life and with being “a true visionary” who really understands what is occurring in the business. He noted that, while Blunt was head of retail distribution prior to being promoted this past March, he taught him how to have a great distribution mind. Prior to BlackRock, Coffey worked in pharmaceutical sales at Marion Merrell Dow, a pharmaceuticals manufacturer and marketer based in Kansas City, Mo. He has been a speaker at various conferences, including Money Management Institute and National Investment Company Service Association events. 4. COFFEY MICHAEL 5. COLLETTE WAYNE strategy included looking for non-traditional tech stocks and expanding to a global focus, he noted. The resulting impact was the fund earning the Lipper award for the No. 1 fund over a five-year period for 2005 and 2006. In the industry, Collette sees a shift away from market neutral strategies. “The market is starting to realize that market-neutral funds generally have a long bias rather than really being market-neutral,” he said, noting that most lost money in August 2007. “As a result, the industry will likely be further segmented into relative- and absolute-return categories. When clients want market exposure going forward, they are likely to determine the amount of exposure they want and allocate that to a relative-return product.” Prior to joining Columbia Management in 2001, Collette was an associate portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman from 1999 through 2001, and an assistant v.p. and equity research analyst at Schroder Capital Management from 1997 through 1999. He said he chose the profession because of the challenge of understanding the markets and individual stocks, as well as wanting to learn something new each day. A chartered financial analyst, Collette points to Apple as the company he most admires. “To be able to innovate consistently with high-value products in a very competitive category, especially given the size and breadth of the company, is very impressive to me,” he said. 5. WAYNE COLLETTE Portfolio Manager Columbia Management, Portland, Ore. Age: 38 Education: Columbia University Business School (M.B.A.) Mentors: Bruce Greenwald, Professor, Columbia University Business School; Laura Sloate, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University Business School Collette oversees the Columbia Technology Fund, an all-cap fund with $351 million in assets, and Columbia Small Cap Growth I, a small-cap growth fund with $262 million in assets. He also manages more than $1 billion in assets across variable annuity portfolios, common trust funds, separately managed accounts, individually managed accounts and sub-advised accounts. Collette describes his biggest accomplishment as growing the Columbia Technology Fund to more than $750 million. “When I started managing the tech fund in July 2002, it was an $8 million fund that was down more than 60% from inception,” he said. “We changed the strategy from one of being benchmark-focused to one where we looked for absolute returns on every stock we purchased.” That 14 MUTUAL FUND RISING STARS JANUARY 2008
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