Trio of former Maxus managers joins Barone at his post-Fifth Third venture. Private-client investment management firm Ancora Advisors has moved into a bigger office and hired three senior managers as it expannds to keep pace with better than five-fold growth in its assets under management -- from $150 million to $850 million -- over the past year.

Familiar faces

Beachwood, Ohio-based Ancora's 13,000 square foot space is a step up from its old 3,500 square foot digs. In addition to housing the firm's new senior staffers Denis Amato, CIO for equities, James Bernard, senior portfolio manager for fixed income and Alan Miller, portfolio manager, the new office accommodates a fully equipped trading room for Ancora's broker-dealer affiliate.

"Adding these veteran investment professionals gives us exceptional depth and experience," says Ancora's CEO Frederick DiSanto. "[These additions bring] our staff to 23, and with our larger office we are in a position to add more people to serve our growing client base."

Amato, Bernard and Miller used to work with DiSanto and Ancora's chairman Richard Barone at Maxus Investment, which merged with Cincinnati, Ohio-based Fifth Third Bank in 2001.

Barone founded Ancora, a mutual-find advisory and separately managed account manager that caters mainly to high-net-worth individuals, early in 2004.

DiSanto says he expects to see Ancora hit $1 billion in assets under management by the end of the year. -FWR

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