Eric M. Rubin is a boy wonder of his profession.
Only 28 years old, Rubin spent the past two years managing Banc One Corp.'s high profile mutual fund family, the One Group.
Now, as a newly appointed managing director of Furman Selz, a New York- based mutual fund distributor, Mr. Rubin is taking on the challenge of marketing First Interstate Bancorp's proprietary funds at a time when the program is in transition.
Early this year, First Interstate scrapped a program to sell mutual funds through licensed bank employees, and moved to use only full-service brokers. Now it is consolidating management of the funds, currently located in Los Angeles and Denver, to a single site in Phoenix.
With more consolidation at First Interstate in the works, Mr. Rubin will head a small team of distributors based in nearby Scottsdale, Ariz., to serve the account - the first time that Furman Selz has set up a field office.
Led by Mr. Rubin, the group of six or seven will help provide marketing support to the bank managers of the First Interstate proprietary products.
Furman Selz also will operate a telephone center to answer calls from broker-dealers and shareholders.
Mr. Rubin said he was attracted by First Interstate's focus of using well-trained brokers. "First Interstate is sticking to its guns," he said. "The bank seems to have a strong commitment to the Series 7 (full-service broker) program, and I'm excited about that."
First Interstate's Pacifica family of 10 funds, which hold $2.5 billion in assets under management, was acquired along with San Diego Trust last year. Its homegrown Westcore family of 22 funds has $2.4 billion in assets, according to Lipper Analytical Services Inc.
A group called Denver Investment Advisers - spun off several months ago from First Interstate's Denver bank - is advising four of the Westcore funds, and subadvising two others.
However, most of the Westcore funds are likely to be consolidated with the Pacifica funds, a development industry sources said would affect the administrator/distributor relationship, .
First Interstate declined to comment on its plans.
This is Mr. Rubin's second stint at Furman Selz. The first came less than a year after he graduated from college.
His first job, auditing mutual fund companies for Price Waterhouse, brought him in touch with executives at Furman Selz, who offered him a job.
There he started out as a fund accountant - handling day to day fund valuations and SEC filings - and eventually took on the responsibility for the entire relationship, including marketing and distribution, for Chemical Banking Corp., First Michigan Bank, and First Fidelity.
"Eric was actively involved with bank clients at a very young age," said John Pileggi, senior managing director and head of the Furman Selz mutual funds division. "He has a lot more mileage than many people twice his age."
"He's a hard worker and he's very bright," said Gary Gordon, a vice president in charge of the Hanover Funds at Chemical Banking Corp.
In November of 1993, Mr. Rubin was hired to replace Michelle Lenzmeier as senior managing director of Banc One Investment Advisers, the money management arm in charge of the Ohio-based bank's proprietary fund family.
During his 20 months there, Mr. Rubin says, sales of proprietary funds went from $1 million a month to $15 million a month.
The latest in a string of executive defections from Banc One's mutual fund business over the past year, Mr. Rubin said he believed each executive left for different reasons.
However, he said, "The Banc One program has gone through its changes," such as having several administrators within several years, which "contributes to the frustration."
Furman Selz hired Mr. Rubin because of his experience on both sides of the fund distributor relationship.
"Eric understands the interaction between the administrator/distributor and the bank,' said Mr. Pileggi. "And he has tremendous appreciation for the intricacies of working in a bank environment."
