Elite advisory taps Bank of America’s private bank for talent. Bessemer Trust has made former Bank of America private banker Richard Zimmerman a principal of its business-development initiatives in New York.

“Richard has an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of private wealth management, including investment advisory, credit, banking, fiduciary and wealth planning services,” says Donovan Moore, who heads business development at Bessemer. “His extensive experience serving New York and New England clients will further strengthen Bessemer’s profile among prominent families in those regions,”

If anyone asks

As a senior v.p. with the Private Bank at Bank of America, Zimmerman was market leader for southern Connecticut and Westchester Co., New York. Previously he was with JPMorgan Private Bank, where he helped develop strategies to target and serve corporate executives.

News of Zimmerman’s appointment comes just days after Bessemer announced the appointment of Bryant Seaman as head of its new family-business consulting initiative.

New York-based Bessemer was founded nearly a century ago as the family office of Henry Phipps, a partner of Andrew Carnegie in the Carnegie Steel Company. Now a multi-family wealth management and investment advisory firm, Bessemer oversees about $43 billion in assets for approximately 1,800 high-net-worth families and individuals as well as their foundations and endowments.

“Bessemer” refers Sir Henry Bessemer, an English engineer who in the 1850s developed a method for making steel by blasting compressed air through molten iron to burn out excess carbon and impurities. –FWR

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