Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. announced that Joseph E. Maccone has rejoined the company in a new role as senior managing director and head of strategic distribution and Thomas Franco has been promoted to senior managing director and head of retail sales. They both report to Barry Mandinach, executive vice present and head of distribution. Maccone will be responsible for leading the ongoing, strategic evolution of the company's retail distribution by building on its successful collaborations with distribution partners; enhancing its strategy for increasing sales in the registered investment advisor (RIA) channel; accelerating the growth of alternatives and other non-correlated investment strategies; and driving the distribution support of the development and introduction of new products.

The company's National Accounts, Distribution Intelligence, and Offshore Retail Sales teams will report to Maccone. Franco assumes overall leadership of the company's external and internal U.S. retail sales teams that promote Virtus and its affiliated managers' offerings through intermediaries at national and regional firms, and independent broker/dealers. Franco is responsible for ensuring continuation of the company's effective multi-manager, multi-strategy retail business development efforts.

Maccone joins the company from Affiliated Managers Group, where he most recently was head of U.S. intermediary distribution. He previously was the divisional sales manager of the eastern region at Virtus and earlier was national sales manager for alternative investments at UBS Global Asset Management, where he worked in the private client and ultra-high net worth channels. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Villanova University and earned an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Franco has led Virtus' West region wirehouse sales division since 2015 after joining the company from UBS Global Asset Management, where he was managing director and head of national sales since 2009. Prior to joining UBS, he was a regional sales manager at the predecessor to Virtus. He holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the State University of New York at Oswego.