Challenge

Traditionally a mutual fund behemoth that sought to re-brand its commitment to the institutional market, the new manager had a limited institutional product offering, a lack of “sellable” performance track records, and a new brand in the institutional space.  

• Identifying those institutional sales professionals nationwide that had the required rolodex of large corporate, endowment and foundation relationships, as well as a track record of raising assets from the largest corporate plan sponsors, endowments and foundations.
• Headquarters relocating outside of a major city with requirement for the salesperson to be located nearby.
• A highly visible reorganization at the senior-most level of the firm changing reporting structure and the sales team structure mid-search.   

Sextant’s Approach

• Targeting prospective candidates at or formerly with the largest asset management firms as well as the boutique firms in the desired territory covering the largest plans sponsors in that geography and with a track record of raising significant assets.
• Sourcing and targeting individuals currently located in the Boston area that would be amenable to living in New England. 
• Leveraging Sextant’s significant relationships to attract otherwise skeptical candidates to the table.
• Becoming the client’s de facto PR voice in the market to educated prospective candidates on important nuances to this newly branded institutional business.   

Sextant’s Solution

It was through Sextant’s own internal network that we were able to leverage our resources, long history of completed searches and industry profile to attract and recruit multiple candidates.  We emphasized the compelling attributes of the role – the entrepreneurial build-out nature of the opportunity whereby one could shape the future of the firm’s distribution effort and also take on a leadership role - and harnessed these key attributes through out the search process in order to recruit many suitable candidates despite a skeptical marketplace.

Through a massive sourcing effort, we ultimately identified and attracted numerous, qualified individuals.  The successful candidate had spent the majority of his career with a well-known, large money manager where he’d developed an impressive rolodex of the largest plan sponsors and a commensurate track record of raising assets.

The successful candidate viewed the opportunity as chance to join and shape a growing institutional effort where he could have a broad spectrum of product, both traditional and alternative to offer his expansive relationships with institutional investors.  The opportunity also presented a chance to put the new firm on the map in the institutional market.

 

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Challenge

• The role required a de-novo build out of the client’s entire consultant relations function. The client endeavored to double assets and recognized the need to build a more systematic approach to the consultant relations community. This new individual would be the dedicated professional covering that channel, and would lead the effort.
• The ideal candidate had to have significant experience building entrepreneurial businesses and possess a successful track record building relationships with senior field and other consultants and research analysis.
• A key component of the candidate’s success was his/her ability to build the necessary relationships within the various internal functional groups at the firm (i.e., portfolio management and research, Marketing and client service, finance and compliance, in addition to the external consultant community.
• The successful candidate would have to represent the full range of the firm’s products, quantitative alternatives, traditional, global & domestic equities to consultants throughout the United States.
• Had to be strategic and tactical.

Sextant’s Approach

The strategy for identification involved:

• Education of the market on the firm’s current business model, as well as their future strategy, raising market awareness of the firm’s products and capabilities and thereby the profile of the search.
• Leveraged Sextant’s considerable search experience and relationships to network build credibility and get skeptical candidates to the table.

Sextant’s Solution

• Sextant identified the successful candidate early in the process but continued to introduce viable candidates throughout the search as a way for the client to benchmark and calibrate compensation, seniority, credibility, quality and cultural fit as this was the first position of its kind to be introduced to the client.
• The key to our success was to capitalize on our clients compelling story and to identify and recruit a broad range of candidates representing boutiques multi-asset managers, Global or Domestic firms across different compensation ranges, territory coverage and seniority.  Thus allowing our client the satisfaction of making the best hire after this thorough examination of the candidate pool.

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Challenge

The client was a growing structured credit products business seeking access to the most sophisticated institutional investors. The challenges of the search included:

• Identifying the narrow pool of candidates with a unique blend of relationships with institutional investors, as well as experience marketing structured credit products, especially CDO equity.
• Attracting candidates to a second tier commercial bank that was just building out its structured products effort.

Sextant’s Approach

• Targeting select sell-side and buy-side structured credit marketers that had relationships with the target client segment of pension funds, endowments and other sophisticated institutions.
• Discreet sourcing into the pension and endowment communities with existing CDO investments and soliciting recommendations for the top sell-side structured credit marketers. 
• Adopting an out-of-the-box approach by looking at individuals outside of the sell-side at both traditional and alternative asset management firms who had the relevant institutional relationships but lacked the track record in selling structured credit products.  For example, we targeted institutional sales people at the traditional money managers, and marketers and fundraisers at hedge funds and private equity funds who could potentially transition and would consider moving from the buy side into a structured credit marketing role.

Sextant’s Solution

By leveraging Sextant’s multiple practice areas – Private Equity, Hedge Funds and Asset Management – creating a comprehensive, “converged” approach, we were able to quickly navigate candidates with great relationships who existed outside the sell-side and could sell structured credit products.  We also did extensive sourcing into the major plan sponsors who were early adopters of the CDO equity asset class.

We identified and helped our client hire two individuals – one located on the East Coast and one located on the West Coast – with unique experience selling CDOs, as well as a deep rolodex of institutional investors.

 

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Challenge

Senior management of this high-profile start-up, while highly accomplished in credit and rates, were relatively inexperienced at looking to currency as an asset class. They knew they wanted a top player to join the team, which was comprised of the cream of the crop from the parent organization’s proprietary trading desks (forex was one of the only markets in which the parent lacked a significant footprint in prop trading). But beyond a desire for excellence, they had few preconceptions about the investment style they sought—whether quantitative or fundamental, directional or market neutral—or the professional profile of their desired candidate.  
 

Sextant's Approach

Recognizing the need to cast a wide net, at least until the client’s requirements took on more definition, Sextant pulled together a search team that cut across several practices:

• Hedge Funds to source macro and quantitatively-oriented candidate
• Capital Markets, to source candidates from flow and prop trading desks
• Traditional Asset Management to source into the long-only space

Sextant’s Solution

By showing the client a variety of profiles from multiple disciplines early in the process, we were able to help senior management refine their thinking about this key strategy area and to realize that the optimal fit, in terms of culture and risk appetite, probably shared their prop trading background. As it turned out, the successful candidate (a diversity hire) joined from the prop desk of a rival bank, lured by the strategic nature of the role and the greater risk-taking environment of a stand-alone entity.

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The Challenge

A closed-end retail behemoth that was just beginning to develop a focused institutional calling effort and had frayed relations with several key consultants.

• Integration with a newly hired head of business development.
• Sensitivity to compensation; an aversion to "buying a Rolodex.”

Sextant’s Approach

• Finding candidates within the NY metro region who could instantly build internal credibility and rapport with both the senior leadership and investment teams.
• Discreetly sourcing in the consultant community in an effort to identify individuals who were keen to educate and advise relationships in a "value added" way vs. the retail "blast marketing" approach the firm had previously employed.

Sextant’s Solution

We ultimately found an individual who was concerned about the stability of his former platform, yet was currently wearing the strategic and tactical hat of consultant relations with national coverage.  He viewed the opportunity as a step up and a chance to truly shape the growth of the consultant target group at a truly differentiated and relatively unknown firm.

 

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Challenge

• A Wall Street firm with a reputation for turnover in its asset management unit--particularly at the management level.
• An historically weak public fund effort with a heavy concentration of clients invested in only one out of 16 strategies; moreover, that strategy was experiencing performance issues.
• Two incumbent salesmen who were dubious of the need for a senior public fund marketer.

Sextant’s Approach

• We spent time with the sales team to understand their concerns and invited their participation in the process.
• We focused on individuals who were not "Rolodex huggers."
• Though convinced the individual needed relationships, we also made sure candidates were prepared to build a credible profile in the broader public fund community.

Sextant’s Solution

The successful candidate was an experienced public fund marketer with some management experience. He was drawn to the opportunity to move from a pure fixed income shop to a multistrategy platform, thus allowing him to deepen relationships he has been cultivating over the years.  One important nuance: this candidate waited to receive a rather large bonus payment three months after accepting the written offer.

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