Winners of the 15th Annual Mutual Fund Industry Awards were announced on Thursday evening, March 6th at a black-tie dinner and ceremony at The Pierre in New York City. The awards were given out by Fund Action, Fund Directions and Operations Management, publications of Institutional Investor News covering the U.S. mutual fund industry. The awards recognized the fund leaders, marketers, trustees and attorneys who made a significant impact on the fund industry during the past year.

Winners were announced and awarded 'Oscar-Style' at the dinner and ceremony, which hosted over 500 leaders and luminaries from every facet of the mutual fund industry. Among those recognized was Larry Fink, CEO, BlackRock who accepted his award for Fund Leader of the Year.

Also awarded were this year's Rising Stars of Mutual Funds, up-and-coming, talented young professionals nominated by their managers, mentors and peers and selected by the editors of Institutional Investor News as future leaders of the Mutual Fund Industry.

More than $130,000 was raised during the evening for Mutual Funds Against Cancer in support of the Center for Applied Cancer Science (CACS), part of the Belfer Institute for Innovative Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

This year's award winners were as follows:

Fund Action's Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Jim Hawkes, Retired CEO and Chairman, Eaton Vance

Fund Directions' Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
James Bodurtha, Independent Director, BlackRock

FUND ACTION AWARD WINNERS

Fund Leader of the Year
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock

Fund Marketer of the Year
Richard Chambers, Head of Marketing, JPMorgan Funds

Deal of the Year
Madison Dearborn Partners' Buyout Of Nuveen Investments

Advertising Campaign of the Year
Fidelity Investments

Sales Success of the Year
Michael Mach, Judy Sarayan, Walter Row and Michael Allison, Portfolio Managers, and Bill Gillen, National Sales Director, Eaton Vance's Tax-Managed Global Diversified Equity Income Fund

SMA Player of the Year
Jim Tracy, Head of Advisory Services and Consulting, Smith Barney

FUND DIRECTIONS AWARD WINNERS

Trustee of the Year
Michael Scofield, Independent Chair, Evergreen Funds

Small Board Trustee of the Year
Julian Reid, Independent Chair, The Korea Fund

Independent Counsel of the Year
Paul Dyskra & Paulita Pike, Partners, Bell Boyd & Lloyd

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AWARD WINNER

Best Post-Trade Technology Implementation
O'Shaughnessy Asset Management, total back-office outsourcing

Visit the awards website for additional information: http://www.iinews.com/site/MFA08/

About the publications:
Fund Action covers important news and trends in the U.S. mutual fund industry including the top fund firms, mergers & acquisitions, executive compensation, industry alliances, fund families at banks and full-service brokerage firms, top-level personnel moves, legislation and technology.
Please visit the website at: http://www.fundaction.com.

Fund Directions is the premiere independent publication covering issues of concern to mutual fund boards and reports on the key issues in mutual fund governance from an independent trustee's perspective. Please visit the website at: http://www.funddirections.com.

Operations Management is the only news-breaking source that exclusively covers back-office issues of broker/dealers, investment adviser firms and custodian banks. The publication covers U.S. and international firms providing insights into securities operations around the globe. Please visit the website at: http://www.operationsmanagement.com/