AllianceBernstein Expands Defined Contribution Team

Mark Brown has joined the firm as managing director for defined contribution (DC) products, a role in which he is responsible for supporting defined contribution business development activities through the firm’s institutional sales force. Franchesca Maddalena joined the firm as vice president and defined contribution marketing director, responsible for DC distribution marketing efforts. Heather Balley will join the firm as vice president and DC participant communications director, responsible for all plan participant communications regarding products and retirement readiness.

Brown will report to Richard Davies, senior managing director of defined contribution and co-head of the firm’s North America institutional business. Davies rejoined AllianceBernstein in December 2013 and helped to develop custom target-date solutions during his previous 16 years at the firm. In his new role, Brown will focus on supporting the firm’s generalist institutional client advisers in their defined contribution business development activities, as well as in their efforts to provide additional investment services to existing DC clients.

Brown joins AllianceBernstein from Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), where he was a vice president and institutional defined contribution strategist responsible for leading the institutional sales initiative for GSAM’s DC business.

Maddalena reports to Jennifer DeLong, senior vice president of multi-asset product management, and is responsible for developing and implementing marketing plans for the firm’s defined contribution products and services, as well as creating product marketing materials that support sales efforts.

Maddalena joins AllianceBernstein from PIMCO, where she was vice president of distribution marketing for the firm’s global wealth management unit and responsible for leading development and implementation of marketing plans that aligned with internal business objectives.

Balley will also report to Jennifer DeLong and is responsible for creating educational material for plan participants about how to achieve their retirement goals in alignment with the firm’s sales and marketing initiatives. Balley also joins from PIMCO, where she was vice president, marketing, for the global wealth management division. Her experience includes creating marketing plans for the EMEA region and a full suite of investment educational materials for the investor/participant audience.

Davies says AllianceBernstein has been building out its suite of target-date products to adapt to the changing retirement investing landscape—most recently with the launch of multi-manager funds that offer the independent selection of funds from multiple investment managers in one portfolio.

Additional information about AllianceBernstein is available here.