T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. announced that company veterans Kevin Collins and Francisco Negrón will take on new positions leading the firm's businesses serving the U.S. intermediary and retirement services channels. The appointments are effective on March 1, 2024. Collins will become head of U.S. Intermediaries (USI), T. Rowe Price's business supporting financial advisors and consultants in the intermediary channel.

He will report to Dee Sawyer, who vacated the role on January 1, 2024, when she became the head of Global Distribution ? the group responsible for sales, marketing, and client service globally across all distribution channels ? upon the retirement of Robert Higginbotham.

Since 2019, Collins has been the head of Retirement Plan Services (RPS), which provides investments and record keeping services for sponsors and participants of workplace retirement plans. Collins joined T. Rowe Price in 1994 and has held positions of increasing responsibility throughout his career. Before becoming head of RPS, he headed RPS' Product & Platforms group and led its sales and client services teams. Collins serves as chair of the SPARK Institute's Governing Board, for the Society of Professional Asset Managers and Record Keepers.

Concurrent with Collins' move to USI, the division's Annie Brown and Jim Zurad will also take on new roles as co-heads of USI Wealth Management. Brown will lead the unit's National Accounts Management team across the broker/dealer, global banks, and platforms groups, while Zurad will lead its field sales organization. These new appointments reflect USI's dedicated, long-term strategic focus on the wealth management channel.

Brown and Zurad are also company veterans, having joined T. Rowe Price in 1993 and 1996, respectively. Both will report to Collins. Negrón will succeed Collins as head of RPS and report to Sawyer.

For the past 12 years, he has overseen RPS' best-in-class Client Services organization, which includes the relationship management, client account management, plan compliance consulting, and participant engagement functions. Negrón joined T. Rowe Price in 1987 and is a member of MOSAIC, the company's business resource group focused on attracting and retaining ethnically diverse associates while promoting an inclusive culture, and the firm's Latinx Heritage community. He is also the host of the current season of T. Rowe Price's "CONFIDENT CONVERSATIONS® on Retirement" podcast.

Highlighting its commitment to retirement solutions, T. Rowe Price also recently announced the formation of the Global Retirement Strategy Team, under the leadership of Michael Davis. Sawyer's industry experience dates to 1993, and she has been with T. Rowe Price since 2011. Before her recent appointment as head of Global Distribution, she held several influential roles in senior leadership at the firm.

Among them, she headed the Individual Investor (II) business unit, served as head of Corporate Marketing & Communications, and headed Human Resources before she was tapped in 2022 to lead USI and RPS. Sawyer also serves on T. Rowe Price's Management Committee.