Mark Brown, Franchesca Maddalena and Heather Balley Join AllianceBernstein's Expanding Defined Contribution Team to Support its Business Development and Marketing Efforts

NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- AllianceBernstein L.P. (AllianceBernstein), a global investment management firm, announced today three new hires as it continues to expand its Defined Contribution team which manages more than $30 billion in assets. Mark Brown has joined the firm as Managing Director, Defined Contribution Products, responsible for supporting defined contribution business development activities through the firm's institutional sales force. Franchesca Maddalena joined the firm as Vice President, Defined Contribution Marketing Director, responsible for defined contribution distribution marketing efforts. Heather Balley will join the firm as Vice President, DC Participant Communications Director, responsible for all plan participant communications regarding products and retirement readiness.

Brown will report to Richard Davies, Senior Managing Director, Defined Contribution and Co-Head North America Institutional. Davies rejoined AllianceBernstein in December, 2013 and was a key architect of its 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 Advisors in their defined contribution business development activities as well as in their efforts to provide additional investment services to existing DC clients. Maddalena reports to Jennifer DeLong, Senior Vice President, 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.  Balley will also report to Jennifer DeLong and be 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.

"We've been building out our suite of target-date products to adapt to the changing landscape -- most recently with the launch of our multi-manager funds that offer the independent selection of funds from high quality investment managers in one portfolio," said Richard Davies. "Making sure we have an equally robust team of product and marketing specialists is essential to our success and we are fortunate we are able to attract high caliber talent such as Mark, Franchesca and Heather who all bring valuable experience from highly regarded firms in the industry."

Brown joins AllianceBernstein from Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), where he was Vice President, Institutional Defined Contribution strategist and responsible for leading the institutional sales initiative for GSAM's DC business. Maddalena joins AllianceBernstein from PIMCO, where she was Vice President, Distribution Marketing for the firm's Global Wealth Management unit and responsible for leading development and implementation of marketing plans that aligned with firm initiatives and internal business objectives. Balley also joins from PIMCO, where she was Vice President, Marketing, for the Global Wealth Management division and responsible for creating marketing plans for the EMEA region and a full suite of investment educational materials for the investor/participant audience.

About AllianceBernstein
AllianceBernstein is a leading global investment management firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals and private clients in major world markets.

As of June 30, 2014, AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. owned approximately 36.0% of the issued and outstanding AllianceBernstein Units and AXA, one of the largest global financial services organizations, owned an approximate 63.6% economic interest in AllianceBernstein.

Additional information about AllianceBernstein may be found on our internet site, www.alliancebernstein.com.  

About AllianceBernstein's Multi-Asset Solutions Group
AllianceBernstein's Multi-Asset Solutions Group is a dedicated team that draws on its deep capital-markets expertise, research insights and a full range of risk/return sources as building blocks to create integrated multi-asset investment solutions tailored to the needs of each client. These include glidepath strategies like target-date and lifetime income solutions for defined contribution plans, asset allocation strategies and solutions targeting unique market index and factor exposures. With a team of more than 25 investment professionals, the Multi-Asset Solutions Group works to provide comprehensive solutions to long-term investment objectives through the use of multiple asset classes, strategies, and approaches that are integrated into single portfolios and actively managed on an ongoing basis. 

SOURCE AllianceBernstein