Money Management Executive Announces 2011 Fund Operations Award Winners

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- (http://www.myprgenie.com) -- T. Rowe Price, TIAA-CREF, MFS and John Hancock Mutual Funds have won top honors in this year's 9th Annual Fund Operations Awards, this year renamed the NOVAs - as in innovation. The NOVA Awards will be presented Thursday, October 6, 2011 at NICSA's General Membership Meeting and Best Practices Symposium in Boston.

The awards program is produced by Money Management Executive, a SourceMedia publication for executives in the asset management industry, in conjunction with co-sponsor NICSA, a not-for-profit trade association that provides educational programming and information for the operations sector of the global investment industry. The winners were selected by an independent panel of eight judges.

"This year, there have been a number of improvements to the program-most notably, the new, more memorable name," said Bruce Morris, Executive Vice President at SourceMedia and publisher of Money Management Executive. "The awards were renamed the 'NOVAs' to recognize the tremendous innovation in fund operations, as asset management companies embrace new technologies and strive to become more effective in serving their clients."

All nominations this year were limited to innovations made by individuals or teams at asset management firms. Service and technology providers were able to nominate asset managers that effectively used their products, in the course of producing their innovations.

Money Management Executive also expanded the program to include a fourth category, Creativity in Marketing Operations. The four NOVA categories are: Visionary Leadership, Innovation in Customer Experience, Innovation in Back-Office Efficiencies and Creativity in Marketing Operations.

Finally, this year, the sponsors selected only two winners in each of the four categories: Platinum and Gold.

Visionary Leadership

Wayne O'Melia, President of T. Rowe Price Services, is this year's Visionary Leadership Platinum winner.
Michael Quain, Chief Compliance Officer, and Victor Simon, Director of Operations at Artio Global Management are this year's Visionary Leadership Gold winners.

Innovation in Customer Experience

TIAA-CREF is this year's Innovation in Customer Experience Platinum winner.
Primerica Shareholder Services is this year's Innovation in Customer Experience Gold winner.

Innovation in Back-Office Efficiencies

In the Innovation in Back-Office Efficiencies category, the MFS Corporate Actions Team is this year's Platinum winner.
Russell Investments is this year's Innovation in Back-Office Efficiencies Gold winner.

Creativity in Marketing Operations

Finally, in the Creativity in Marketing Operations category, John Hancock Mutual Funds is the Platinum winner.
Legg Mason is this year's Creativity in Marketing Operations Gold winner.

The Judges

Serving as this year's judges were: Neil Bathon, partner and founder of FUSE Research; Anne Collins, president of Bayshore Management Corp.; Peter Delano, research operations director of capital markets, wealth management and insurance at Tower Group; Michael Ellison, president of Corporate Insight; George Gorman, board member of NICSA and independent trustee for the Bank of America Money Market Funds Series Trust and the Ashmore Funds; Kathleen Whalen, principal and managing director of Dalbar; Robert L. Williams, chairman of HengTian Services and Insigma HengTian Software; and William Young, board member of NICSA.

Further details on all nine winners are available at http://www.mmexecutive.com.

About SourceMedia

SourceMedia, (http://www.sourcemedia.com) an Investcorp company, is a diversified business to business media company serving the financial industry and the related fields of professional services and technology. SourceMedia offers its clients and subscribers professional information services -- both print and digital -- industry-standard data applications, in-depth seminars and conferences, and specialized marketing services.

About Money Management Executive
Money Management Executive (www.mmexecutive.com) dispenses breaking news and in-depth industry analysis of the events and issues affecting the mutual fund and money management industry. Each weekly issue contains intelligence on sales and marketing strategies, changes taking place affecting compliance and operations, interviews with asset management leaders and more.

About NICSA

NICSA (http://www.nicsa.org/) is the leading provider of independent education and networking forums to professionals in the global investment management community. It is a network of nearly 10,000 business professionals from within the investment management industry and the firms that support the industry, including mutual fund complexes, investment management companies, custodian banks, transfer agents and independent providers of specialized products and services. The Association consists of about 250 corporate member firms with over 600 member offices operating in major financial centers around the world.

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SourceMedia
212-803-8787[email protected]

Contact: Edward Hanasik, [email protected], 212-803-6572
Contact: Ying Wong, [email protected], 212-803-8787

SOURCE SourceMedia