Eaton Vance Distributors, whose sales through banks have been zooming, has added three bank sales executives.
The Boston-based mutual fund company named as a key account manager Mark Carlson, previously an executive with Fidelity Investments. Mr. Carlson, who started work Monday, will manage sales through banks in the East. He spent 15 years with Eaton Vance before leaving to join Fidelity two years ago.
Theresa Sheehan was tapped as a wholesaler for western Pennsylvania. Ms. Sheehan, who is to start in the new role Sept. 1, has been a key account manager with Eaton Vance.
And Peter Sykes, a former GT Global executive, started Aug. 1 as a wholesaler for the Northern California region. GT Global's mutual fund sales force took buyouts this year after the company was bought by Amvescap, the parent of AIM Management Group and Invesco.
Eaton Vance now has 18 bank wholesalers and two key account managers.
In addition to the executives who will work specifically with banks, Eaton Vance has named two wholesalers who will work with banks as well as other intermediaries.
Mark Whitehouse will cover an area consisting of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and Stefan Thielen will cover the Rocky Mountain region. Both come from the Eaton Vance ranks, and both are to start Sept. 1.
Sales overall and through banks in particular are running at twice last year's rates, said William M. Gillen, senior vice president. Bank sales are on a pace to exceed $1.5 billion this year, he said.
Eaton Vance, traditionally known as a fixed-income business, has improved its sales by adding more equity mutual funds and stressing a tax- managed approach to investing. In July it introduced a tax-managed international fund.
As recently as 1993 just 10% of Eaton Vance's sales came from equity funds; that figure has risen to 45%, Mr. Gillen said.
"It shows that investment advisers and investors themselves are embracing the theme of tax-managed mutual funds," he said.
Sales through banks account for about a quarter of Eaton Vance's assets under management, which according to Financial Research Corp., a Boston- based research company, came to almost $20 billion at midyear, up 20% from a year earlier. Eaton Vance's market share in the mutual fund business was 0.55%, up from 0.47%.
