A New York-based mutual fund shop just added eight wholesalers and four mutual funds. Watch for more additions soon.

He's Still Hiring

Jerry Szilagyi, CEO of Huntington, New York-based Catalyst Funds [profile], tells MFWire that he's on the hunt for wholesalers to cover Ohio and the Pacific Northwest. Catalyst now has about 20 wholesalers.

"We're approaching national coverage at this point. We still have a couple of openings," Szilagyi says. "We've been continually expanding our sales force over the last year and a half ... This is all fueled by the growth in the business."

Catalyst began 2014 with about $500 million in assets under management, Szilagyi says, and that number is now at $1.1 billion and counting. He expects Catalyst's net inflow figure for July alone to come in at about $120 million.

"We're looking to expand our efforts in the key accounts area," Szilagyi adds.

More Liquid Alts Funds Are Coming

Szilagyi also confirms that Catalyst has more fund launches on the way.

"We're continuing to look at additional liquid alternative strategies," Szialgyi says. "We have a couple of other new funds in the works."

Catalyst Debuts Four Funds

Meanwhile, this week Catalyst launched four mutual funds, increasing its total product suite to 21 mutual funds. The new funds are the Catalyst Activist Investor Fund, the Catalyst Insider Income Fund, the Catalyst Absolute Total Return Fund and the Catalyst/Groesbeck Aggressive Growth Fund. The Insider Income Fund is Catalyst's fifth fund driven by its insider activity strategy, and the first to apply that strategy to fixed income.

Catalyst Hires Five Externals and Three Internals

As for Szilagyi's continued hiring plans, this week he unveiled the addition of eight new wholesalers, five externals and three internals.

Tim Hanson now serves as an external wholesaler covering Minnesota and Wisconsin for Catalyst. He previously worked at Allianz, Sun Life and Transamerica.

John Mills joined Catalyst as an external wholesaler covering Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. His career includes time at American Capital, BlackRock and Van Kampen.

Angele Ryan joined Catalyst covering Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. for Catalyst. She previously worked with Allied Planning Resources, Arrow Funds and National Life.

Hanson, Mills and Ryan all most recently worked with third-party marketing and wholesaling firm Dolan Capital Group. Szilagyi confirms that Dolan previously represented one of Catalyst's sub-advised funds.

External wholesaler Gregg Torti joined Catalyst to cover Delaware, southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. His prior employers include American Independence, Fidelity, Prudential and Vertical Capital Markets.

External wholesaler Brandon Schwulst now covers Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah for Catalyst. He previously served as director of institutional sales for Lyons Wealth Management, which subdvises two Catalyst Funds.

On the Catalyst internal sales desk, Michael Baldauf, Bill Besgen and Michael Zufall all joined up. Baldauf and Besgen both previously worked with AXA Advisors, while Zufall previously worked with BNY Mellon's Dreyfus. 

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