Whyte re-surfaces at Dynamic

(May 9, 2005) Less than two months after leaving AIC, veteran industry executive David Whyte has joined Dynamic Mutual Funds as executive vice president, national sales.

“His exceptional skills in sales and marketing, and developing institutional synergy, will complement the company’s expansion strategy,” said Dynamic president David Goodman in an appointment notice posted in the Globe and Mail.

“Whyte has a successful 16-year record in the mutual fund industry for initiating and managing both acquisition and organic growth. He has held senior sales and marketing positions with several large competitive firms to Dynamic,” Goodman added.

Whyte left AIC abruptly in March after just a nine-month tenure, amid unconfirmed reports of friction with AIC upper management. The 58-year-old left AIM Trimark last summer and moved to AIC, with a mandate to re-connect with advisors, boost the company’s wholesale and marketing team and help turnaround a long spell of redemptions. That didn’t happen — AIC’s net redemptions were $304 million in January, $399 million in February, $310 million in March and $312 in April, according to IFIC stats.

Still, although the redemption situation did not improve under Whyte (who could not be reached for comment today), that was not necessarily his fault, industry insiders note. “He had a short time and was in a difficult situation,” one source said.

Working life could be considerably less stressful for Whyte at Dynamic. The company has enjoyed more than $750 million in net new sales so far this year and its mutual fund assets have climbed to $12 billion from $9.6 billion in April, 2004. Whyte starts at Dynamic on Monday, May 16, according to company spokesperson Trevor Hampden, exactly two months after resigning from AIC.

Filed by Doug Watt, Advisor.ca, doug.watt@advisor.rogers.com