Jim Atkinson, the president of Maxfunds.com, is striking out on his own to start Orbis Marketing, a new mutual fund marketing firm.
In September 2000, Atkinson was named president of Maxfunds, a Web site that collects data and tracks small and new mutual funds. Prior to joining the small fund rater, Atkinson was the managing director of Investec Asset Management's U.S. division. At the time he left Investec for Maxfunds, Atkinson admitted he was taking "a bit of a career risk" but said the move had tremendous potential. [See MFMN 10/16/01]
After the economy worsened in early 2001, MaxFunds could not secure funding and the firm "wasn't going anywhere in terms of making money," he said.
