Multifamily offices are adding staffers despite economic, market in turmoil. The steady pace of top-level recruiting at high-end investment advisories continues. The latest move comes from Philadelphia-based asset- and wealth-management firm Glenmede, which has appointed former U.S. Trust managing director John Wright as a portfolio manager in its Princeton, N.J., office. He reports to John Phillips, head of Glenmede's Princeton office.

"John has worked closely with wealthy families and individuals for more than 30 years," says Phillips. "He possesses the experience, knowledge-base and skills to help clients to articulate and achieve their various financial and legacy goals."

To name a few

Before joining Glenmede last month, Wright spent more than 15 years at U.S. Trust -- which is to say he'd been through two completed mergers and the better part of a third. Schwab got the ball rolling when it acquired the private bank in 2000; Bank of America stepped in last year. And now Bank of America is absorbing Merrill Lynch, a process that has already sent dozens of U.S. Trust staffers running for the exits -- including CEO Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa -- as the old white-shoe outfit appears to be in danger of losing its position as Bank of America's private-client brand of choice.

Glenmede is nothing daunted by a tenacious market downturn and a severe crisis of confidence and credibility on Wall Street when it comes to staffing up to meet its clients' needs, according to the firm's client-service chief Chip Wilson. "At a time when many financial providers have cut back, the addition of John Wright to our Princeton office exemplifies Glenmede's commitment to keep pace with the growing demand for our wealth services," he says.

Wright's appointment comes just weeks after Glenmede hired Benjamin Alimansky, formerly an asset manager to a private family office, to evaluate and monitor outside hedge funds and opportunistic investment strategies.

Other recent multifamily-office appointments -- many to brad-new positions -- include Pitcairn's hire of art specialist Peter May, Bel Air Investment Advisors' hires of attorney Michael Miller and ex-Goldman Sachs investment advisor Josh Markman, Rockefeller & Co. 's hire of former U.S. Trust executive Loraine Tsavaris to develop the firm's U.S. business, Bessemer Trust's hire of former SunTrust Banks executive Michael Gragnani as a business-development officer in its Atlanta office, Harris myCFO's hires of ex-Bank of America private banker Robert Conrardy as director of investment advisory services and former GenSpring Family Offices business developer Brian Gupton as an advisor, Greycourt's hire of former Mcube Investment Technologies managing director Margaret Towle as an investment strategist, Threshold Group's hire of former Wachovia executive Elizabeth Brazas as its chief client-service officer, Genspring's hires of former SunTrust wealth manager Michael Woocher to head one of its Atlanta offices and ex-Neuberger Berman regional director Garrett Alton as a wealth specialist in the other, and a spate of appointments by Convergent Wealth Advisors.

In addition, ex-U.S. Trust CEO Jeffrey Maurer has pulled a number of former Bank of America wealth managers to a new firm he has established in affiliation with the New York-based investment-banking boutique Evercore Partners.

Meanwhile St. Louis, Mo.-based Lowenhaupt Global Advisors has just added senior staff in Australia.

There's been a lot of activity on the retail-brokerage front as well, but much of it looks like churn. Most of the wirehouses have back-burnered new-broker recruiting.

Glenmede was established in the mid 1950s by some of the offspring of Sun Oil founder J.N. Pew as a fiduciary for the Pew Charitable Trusts. It supervises nearly $17 billion in private and institutional assets. -FWR

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