Short Takes: Technology Ace Hired For Aim's Trust Unit

Aim Management Group Inc. has hired a technology wizard from Northern Trust Co. to manage shareholder services for trust department clients.

The Houston-based mutual fund company, which sells its funds through 100 bank trust departments, tapped Jesse H. Cole as director of its institutional transfer agency. A transfer agent performs record keeping and transaction functions for a mutual fund company.

At Chicago-based Northern Trust, Mr. Cole was a second vice president in charge of automating shareholder data accounting information of commingled trust funds.

Aim has been helping banks automate shareholder services in their trust departments, said J. Abbot Sprague, president of the company's institutional distribution subsidiary. Many banks report their transactions over the telephone, he said.

Mr. Cole replaces Mark McMeens, a vice president, who Mr. Sprague said has been assigned to lead an initiative in selling mutual funds over the Internet.