John Hancock Funds Announces Promotions and Steve Blair Award at National Sales Meeting

BOSTON, Sept. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Funds announced several key appointments and a major award at its recent National Sales Meeting.

Christopher Finch, who formerly headed the Northeastern region for John Hancock Funds, was named Divisional Sales Manager, Western Region, based in La Jolla, California. Senior Vice President Sean Farley replaces Mr. Finch as Northeast Divisional Sales Manager, based in Boston.

"With Carolyn Graney's decision to retire, John Hancock Funds loses a longtime leader and inspiration for our entire sales organization. We thank Carolyn for her many contributions as Western Divisional Sales Manager, and wish her the best in the years ahead," said Jeff Duckworth, President of Distribution for John Hancock Funds. "We are very pleased to announce that Chris Finch will be replacing Carolyn, and that Sean Farley will be replacing Chris."

At the sales meeting Mr. Duckworth was recognized with the Steve Blair Award. The most prestigious award at John Hancock Funds, the Steve Blair Award is given to the John Hancock Funds employee who embodies the outstanding qualities that the late Mr. Blair brought to his job as Executive Vice President and member of senior management of John Hancock Funds.

Mr. Finch headed the Northeast division for six years. Prior to that, he was a wholesaler in New York City.

"In 2005, Chris Finch was promoted to East Coast Divisional Sales Manager after being one of our top wholesalers out of Manhattan. He took on the challenge of developing a fairly young and new team for John Hancock Funds. Over the next few years, Chris applied the skills that made him successful as a wholesaler, and the team quickly became the top-producing division for the company. We are confident that Chris will take his experience, skill and passion to his new assignment on the West Coast," said Mr. Duckworth.

Sean Farley is an 18-year veteran of John Hancock Funds. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President focused on wholesaling products, including mutual funds, private managed accounts, and 529 college savings plans, to financial advisers in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut. With this promotion to Northeast DSM, he will have all the financial planner wholesalers from Washington DC, west to Michigan, and north to Maine reporting to him.

Mr. Farley has held several roles throughout John Hancock Funds, including customer service rep, national accounts, and inside sales.  He has been an external wholesaler for the past 14 years, and during that time has received numerous awards, including Business Consultant of the Year on five different occasions, President's Club, and the Sequoia Lifetime Achievement Award. He holds a bachelor's degree from Boston College, where he played collegiate hockey and was instrumental in the team's 1990 trip to the final four, and an MBA from Babson.

"Sean's experience and inexhaustible enthusiasm, coupled with his fiercely competitive nature and a sincere desire to help others improve, will undoubtedly propel the NE division to greater heights in the months and years ahead," said Darren Smith, Senior Vice President and National Sales Manager.

In addition, Peter Matson, who had been Regional Vice President, Business Consultant, was promoted to Senior Vice President. Mr. Matson has been with John Hancock Funds since 2005 and works in the Wirehouse channel in North Carolina and Virginia, based in Raleigh, NC. He graduated with a degree in marketing from Boston College. Mr. Duckworth also announced that Chris Kerger will be moving to Boston to take over Mr. Farley's former territory. Mr. Kerger also has been a perennial star at John Hancock Funds as a top performing Business Consultant and multiple sales award winner, while wholesaling in South/Central California.  

About John Hancock Funds

The Boston-based mutual fund business unit of John Hancock Financial, John Hancock Funds manages more than $71.5 billion in open-end funds, closed-end funds, private accounts, retirement plans and related party assets for individual and institutional investors as at June 30, 2011.  

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial Corporation

John Hancock Financial is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 21 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and in most of Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, Manulife Financial Corporation offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. For more than 120 years, clients have looked to Manulife for strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions for their most significant financial decisions. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$481 billion (US$498 billion) as at June 30, 2011.  Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial may be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers a broad range of financial products and services, including life insurance, fixed and variable annuities, fixed products, mutual funds, 401(k) plans, long-term care insurance, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at www.johnhancock.com.

SOURCE John Hancock Funds