New York-listed Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, the global investment firm, hired former Central Intelligence Agency director David Petraeus as chairman of the newly-created KKR Global Institute.

The firm has, in recent years, increased engagement on macroeconomic and geopolitical considerations, as well as on environmental, social and governance issues.

“The KKR Global Institute will be the nexus of KKR’s focus on the investment implications of these issues,” it said. The new venture will also build on efforts to help KKR’s portfolio companies expand globally.

Petraeus, a retired four-star general, will work with a team at KKR and alongside Ken Mehlman, global head of public affairs, and Henry McVey, global head of macro and asset allocation. Additionally, Petraeus will support KKR’s investment teams in the diligence process, particularly when considering investments in new geographies.

JP Morgan Private Bank hired John Elmes - latterly of GenSpring Family Offices - as a managing director and senior business advisor in New York.

Reporting to David Wezdenko, chief operating officer of the firm’s US private bank, Elmes will focus on the client and advisor experience.

Elmes has 25 years of industry experience and most recently served as an operating committee member and head of investments at GenSpring Family Offices.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management hired Catherine Irby Arnold as senior director in Seattle, WA.

In her newly-created role, Arnold will focus on business development for what the firm believes are two key growth areas for the region: middle-market mergers and acquisitions planning for businesses, and trust services for multigenerational family wealth. She reports to regional director James Barnyak.

Prior to joining BNY Mellon Wealth Management, Arnold was a team leader for the northwest region and a private client advisor at The Private Bank of Union Bank in Seattle. She previously served as national sales and marketing manager of the managed asset group at McDonald Investments/Key Bank.

The Private Client Reserve of US Bank hired Sally Vega as a trust officer in Milwaukee, WI, working with high net worth individuals, families and charitable organizations.

Vega joined the PCR from The PrivateBank, where as a trust officer she advised affluent business executives, individuals and families about trusts, based in Milwaukee.

She has around 16 years of experience in the financial services industry and has also worked at Waukesha State Bank as a senior trust administrator.

Raymond James & Associates, the broker/dealer business of New York-listed Raymond James Financial, brought in Edward Tills from Morgan Stanley as first vice president of investments in Rochester, NY.

Tills started his career in the financial services industry in 1981 at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Rochester. He was later affiliated with Dean Witter, Shearson Lehman, Smith Barney, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, as the firms merged or were acquired.

Kimberly Lawrence Hanga, a senior registered sales assistant with some 18 years of industry experience, joined Tills in Rochester. Hanga spent the last five years working with Tills at Morgan Stanley.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management hired Bill Jarry as director for business development, focused on ultra high net worth clients in the greater Boston, MA, region.

Jarry was formerly a financial advisor at Bernstein Global Wealth Management since 2010 and previously served for 11 years as a managing director at Provident Corporate Finance. In his newly-created role at BNY Mellon, he reports to managing director Fred Young.

Meanwhile, BNY Mellon Wealth Management appointed Shei Unger to the newly-created role of director for the Texas region. Based in Dallas, he reports to David Emmes, president of western US markets. 

Unger was latterly president of the boutique advisory firm Unger & Co Commercial Capital in Dallas, TX, where he also served as head of operations strategy.

Merrill Lynch bolstered its private wealth management team in Midtown Manhattan with the hire of former Credit Suisse advisor Vishal Bakshi.

Bakshi joined as a managing director and private wealth advisor. In his new role he will focus on ultra high net worth clients and foundations with an average value of $30 million.

Bakshi had been with Credit Suisse for over a decade, managing a reported $1.83 billion in assets and producing $5 million in annual revenue. His new team at Merrill includes senior financial analyst Jayne Finst, financial analyst David Greene and client associate Alex Plum.

Baird, the employee-owned firm, added Paul Donnelly as a director and financial advisor in its Chicago wealth management office.

Donnelly joined the firm from William Blair & Company, where he had worked as an investment counselor in the investment management division since 2006. He has been in the industry since 1987, when he started out at Arthur Andersen’s tax practice.

First National Bank Pennsylvania made two hires for its wealth management and private banking divisions, in a move furthering the firm's expansion plans in Maryland.

The firm appointed Michael DeRosa as vice president and financial advisor for its wealth management division and Donna Logan as vice president for private banking.

DeRosa has nearly 20 years of wealth management experience, most recently serving as wealth manager for Wilmington Trust, formerly M&T Bank, in Bethesda, MD.

Logan has more than a decade of private banking and business development experience and most recently she served in a similar role with Sandy Spring Bank in Annapolis, MD. Jacob Biltz, a financial consultant with FNB affiliate First National Investment Services, also joined FNB’s wealth management team in Maryland.

PaulaHogan, the Milwaukee, WI-based fee-only financial advisory firm, appointed Steve White as managing director within its management team.

White joined PaulaHogan from JP Morgan Private Banking, where he was an executive director at the Milwaukee office and part of the national wealth advisory team.

Before joining JP Morgan, White practiced law for 15 years, most recently at Quarles and Brady as an equity partner and member of its estate planning group.

In his new role, White will be responsible for the management and strategic direction of the firm, as well as his duties covering direct advisory work with clients.

KeyBank, the US-based financial services firm, appointed Scott Harris as a vice president and relationship manager for the firm’s New York district.

Harris joined KeyBank from Sagemark Consulting/Lincoln Financial, where he served as a wealth planning advisor. He is FINRA series six and 63 securities registered and holds life, accident and health licenses in multiple states.

JP Morgan Chase appointed Barry Sommers as chief executive of its consumer bank, which includes Chase Wealth Management.

Sommers was latterly head of Chase Wealth Management, which includes the Chase Private Client segment, in a role he held since 2010.

He took over as head of consumer bank from Ryan McInerney, who left the firm after eight years to become president of VISA. He was head of the consumer bank since 2009.

There will be a short transition period during which McInerney will stay on and work with Sommers, and Sommers will continue to report to Gordon Smith, CEO of consumer and community banking, in his new role.

PNC Wealth Management, the wealth arm of Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group, expanded its wealth management team in Alabama.

The team will be headed by PNC Wealth Management director Felix Tankersly.

The team includes: Harvey Hutchinson, vice president and senior wealth planner; Dean Johnson, vice president and senior trust advisor; Bob Ireland, vice president and senior relationship manager; Maggie Tanner, vice president and senior banking advisor; Guillermo Araoz, senior vice president and senior investment advisor; Jeremy Burns, vice president and channel development advisor; and Heather Baker, vice president and relationship manager.

Lyxor Asset Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Societe Generale, appointed Frank Frecentese to its New York office as the deputy head of hedge fund research, in a move furthering the firm's expansion plans.

Frecentese joined from Citi Private Bank, where he was managing director and global head of hedge fund investments.

Prior to joining Citigroup, he was an executive director at Morgan Stanley, where he was the head of alternatives research for Graystone Research, part of the Morgan Stanley group.

Jane Fraser, who has been chief executive of Citigroup’s private bank for the past four years, was replaced by Mark Mason as Fraser took up the post as new head of the US bank’s mortgage business.

The current CitiMortgage CEO, Sanjiv Das, plans to leave the bank to “pursue other opportunities,” according to the wording of an internal memo. The move was announced by Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat.

Das took over Citigroup's mortgage business at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. He will remain at the bank for a few months to assist on mortgage issues related to the government.

Mason, who took on the top job at private banking, has been CEO of Citi Holdings. In turn, Francesco Vanni d'Archirafi, who leads Citigroup's transaction services business, took over as CEO of Citi Holdings, the division that holds all non-core assets that Citi is winding down or selling.

California-based Fremont Bank appointed Oscar Harrison as vice president of wealth management services.

Harrison, who has 14 years of experience in the financial sector, has held a number of positions at firms including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Banc of America Investments.

As well as leading the bank's team of wealth management advisors, in his new role, Harrison will be responsible for the development of a full spectrum of products and services that will be available to banking clients.

RBC Wealth Management added financial advisor Patrick Tobin to its Pittsburgh, PA, office.

Tobin, who joined from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, has around $65 million in assets under management and has been in the industry for 25 years. He was appointed first vice president as well as senior portfolio manager-portfolio focus.

National Financial Partners, which provides insurance and wealth management services, appointed a new chief executive in the shape of Douglas Hammond.

Hammond, who until his appointment was the firm’s president and chief operating officer, replaced Jessica Bibliowicz.

Hammond has served as COO since 2008, and was named president in 2012. He joined the firm in 1999.

Bibliowicz announced her intention to step down as CEO in April 2012, having served in the role since April 1999. She has also been chairman since June 2003.

HighTower, the advisor-owned firm, expanded its partnership development team with two hires, along with completing a round of financing for growth.

Thomas Brown and Frank Epinger joined the firm as executive directors and relationship managers for the East and West coasts respectively.

Brown, who is based in New York, co-founded Black Valley Consulting, a coaching and consulting firm for advisors. Before that, he was a branch manager of a legacy Smith Barney office, and has also served as head of national recruiting for UBS.

Epinger, meanwhile, spent the last 13 years working for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, most recently as a complex manager in Pasadena, CA, overseeing eight offices.

Peapack-Gladstone Bank opened a private banking office in Princeton, NJ, in an expansion of its wealth management business.

As part of its move into the region, the bank hired Sean Murray from Wilmington Trust. At Wilmington, Murray ran wealth advisory services in the New Jersey market, as market executive. He will lead Peapack-Gladstone’s team in the area as senior managing director and market president.

He was joined in his move to Peapack-Gladstone by Gene McCarthy, who was appointed lead senior managing director, commercial banking. McCarthy was most recently team leader of real estate and commercial banking of the Princeton office of M&T Bank/Wilmington Trust.

Gerald Buffalino and Jennifer Ohlweiler also joined the bank as senior managing directors, commercial banking. Buffalino was previously a vice president and senior relationship manager at M&T/Wilmington Trust, while Ohlweiler was a commercial banker at M&T Bank.

The duo will work with McCarthy to develop the commercial banking and wealth management business lines, as well as the client service model.

In other hires, the bank appointed Delia Bass-Dandridge as senior managing director, wealth. Dandridge is a former vice president and senior private client advisor at Wilmington Trust. She will focus on growing the bank’s relationship banking and wealth management business.

Catherine Fedor, Haley Overington and Catina Hood completed the new Princeton team of private bankers.

Fedor joined as a managing director, private banking, having latterly worked at Wachovia Bank. Overington and Hood joined as private bankers, specializing in deposits, and both previously worked at M&T Bank.

UBS appointed Sylvia Coutinho as chief executive of UBS Group Brazil, effective when current CEO Lywal Salles retires on June 24.

Coutinho was previously head of retail banking and wealth management for Latin America and asset management for the Americas at HSBC. She has also worked in a number of other senior Americas-based roles at that firm - primarily in wealth management, private banking and asset management.

In her new role - which UBS said makes her the first woman to serve as CEO of a Brazilian business for an international bank - Coutinho will oversee the delivery of resources to the firm’s private, corporate and institutional clients. This includes UBS Brasil Corretora, which before the Swiss firm bought it in February of this year was called Link Investimentos - one of Brazil’s largest brokerage firms.

Philadelphia, PA-headquartered Janney Montgomery Scott appointed industry veteran Randall Renneisen as an executive vice president of wealth management in Greenville, DE.

Renneisen, who oversees about $195 million in client assets, was joined by vice president of wealth management Robert Fischer and registered private client assistant Susan McDermott. Together they form The Renneisen Group.

Renneisen spent the previous four years at Morgan Stanley and prior to that was at Citigroup Global Markets between 2006 and 2009. He worked at Legg Mason from 1988 until 2006, having started his financial services career in 1984 at Renneisen, Renneisen & Redfield.

First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust hired Brad Rench as senior vice president and regional president, succeeding Gordon Smith who is retiring later this year.

Smith, who became senior vice president and regional president for the Metro East region in 2001, will remain part of the team, focusing on business development for the firm.

In his new role, Rench will manage the banking operations of the Metro East market, responsible for growing business lines including commercial and personal banking, trust and wealth management, and insurance. Rench joined from First Clover Leaf Bank in Edwardsville, IL, where he served as executive vice president and chief operations officer.    

Canada-based CIBC Global Asset Management made two senior appointments, including a chief investment officer, to strengthen its portfolio management team.

Suzann Pennington was appointed managing director and CIO, while Stephen Carlin started as a vice president and senior portfolio manager for Canadian equities. 

Pennington will oversee all of CGAM’s portfolio management and research efforts, but will remain as head of equities and continue to manage the Canadian all-cap mandate.

Carlin has over 22 years of experience in equity investment management and joined CIBC from Aegon Capital Management, where he was a senior vice president and head of equities.

Wellesley, MA-based Weston Financial, a division of Washington Trust Wealth Management, appointed Lorraine Chong as director of research.

Chong joined Weston Financial from a local registered investment advisor, where she served as a portfolio manager. She also spent over a decade at Fidelity Investments as a senior analyst and team leader.

Webster Private Bank hired Yves Cochez as senior vice president and chief investment strategist, based in Stamford, CT. The CIS role is newly-created.

At Webster, Cochez will head up the portfolio management team and set the overall direction of investment management for high net worth clients.

He was most recently a partner and chief investment officer at GBS Finance, having previously held a number of senior investment positions at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management.

Sterne, Agee & Leach, a privately-owned investment banking and brokerage firm, appointed Walter Robinson as president and chief operating officer.

Robinson retired from Scott & Stringfellow/BB&T Capital Markets in March 2012. There, he served in many roles including chief operating officer, president of the private client group, and president and chief executive.

Robertson’s role will be heavily focused on strategic growth and the development of Sterne, Agee & Leach, which is the largest subsidiary of Sterne Agee Group. His role is a new one at the subsidiary.

The US Internal Revenue Service boss, Steven Miller, was forced to step down amid a scandal of how IRS officials selectively screened non-profit groups for political reasons.

Miller, the acting IRS commissioner, resigned due to anger as to why the agency used terms such as “tea party,” for example, to subject some groups’ applications for tax-exempt status to tougher scrutiny.

UK-based equity manager Martin Currie named Ranjit Sufi as country head for its US office.

Sufi joined the firm's New York office as executive vice president of sales and client service, charged with leading business development in the US and Canada. 

Previously, Sufi worked as managing director at Tradewinds Global Investors, an affiliate of Nuveen Investments. Before that, he worked for nine years at Nicholas Applegate Capital Management, where he led the global sales team and was a member of the company’s executive committee.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management brought in Debralee Nelson from JP Morgan Chase as a senior director to serve ultra high net worth clients in the New York region.

Nelson was formerly a managing director and senior banker at JP Morgan Private Bank, responsible for relationship management between 2009 and April of this year. Before that, she served as a managing director and senior business development officer at Bessemer Trust and US Trust.

UBS Wealth Management Americas added The Parker-Harrigan Group - latterly of Bank of America Merrill Lynch - to its office in Fort Lauderdale, FL. 

The Parker-Harrigan Group is led by advisors Robert Harrigan and Scott Parker, who were part of Merrill’s ultra high net worth private banking and investment group.

Harrigan and Parker managed about $545 million in client assets with their team at Merrill and had a T-12 production of about $4.2 million.

Baird appointed two financial advisor teams, with a combined $800 million in assets under management, in Nashville, TN, and Edina, MN.

In Nashville, The Liles Group has about $585 million in AuM and consists of: Malcolm Liles, director and financial advisor; William Liles, financial advisor; and Sherri Minunno, client relationship assistant.

Meanwhile, further north in Edina, The Brennan Group manages about $215 million in assets and is made up of: Gerald Brennan, director and financial advisor; Jim Seidel, financial advisor; and Lynn Kittelson, registered client relationship associate.

Manulife Asset Management hired an emerging markets debt portfolio management team in the shape of Roberto Sanchez-Dahl and Paolo Valle, who joined the firm as managing directors and senior portfolio managers.

As members of the firm’s fixed income team, Sanchez-Dahl and Valle will manage an emerging markets debt strategy for institutional clients and certain wealth management businesses of Manulife Financial and John Hancock.

Reporting to Christopher Conkey, global chief investment officer, the pair will also support other global debt strategies investing in emerging market debt.

Sanchez-Dahl joined from Federated Investment Management Company, where he has served as an emerging markets senior portfolio manager and investment analyst.

Valle was formerly an emerging markets senior portfolio manager at Federated Investment Management Company, where he served as vice president. He spent from 2001 to 2004 as chief investment officer at Ramirez Asset Management in New York City, and has also worked at Merrill Lynch Investment Management in Princeton, NJ. 

New York-based Lenox Advisors appointed Dave Schrohe as executive vice president of private wealth management and Lenox Wealth Advisors. 

Schrohe was latterly chief operating officer of wealth management solutions at UBS. Before that, he served as head of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s corporate client group.

Schrohe spent 16 years at MSSB and its predecessors, leading the corporate and institutional client businesses. He also oversaw efforts to deliver MSSB’s wealth management services to employees and executives of its corporate and institutional clients. 

BNY Mellon Wealth Management made four senior hires in Southern California, as part of a "major focus" on expanding its West Coast presence.  

Sales director Bob Robinson, senior wealth director John Zarchen, and sales director Rob Vickery are based in Los Angeles and report to regional president Larry Miles. Senior director Eric McMullen is based in Newport Beach, reporting to senior director Ben McGloin.

Robinson joined from Welton Investment, where from 2007 until February of this year he served as managing director of business development. Prior to that, he was director of sales for the western division of Quality Home Loans.

Zarchen joined from Wells Fargo Private Bank, where he spent over four years as a senior vice president and national manager. Between 2001 and 2008, he also served as director of planning.

Vickery was formerly part of the wealth and international division at Lloyds Banking Group. Since 2010, he served as a director in North America. Prior to that, he worked at Lloyds in the UK, having started as a corporate partnerships manager in 2006.

McMullen spent the previous eight years as senior vice president and wealth management division director at First Midwest Bank in Chicago, IL. From 2001 to 2005, he was director of marketing at Metlife Financial Services in the Chicago region.

David Skaggs joined The Private Client Reserve of US Bank as a wealth management advisor in St Louis, MO.

Skaggs has over 20 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry, with a background in commercial credit, private banking and investment services.

Before joining the PCR, Skaggs was president of Entech Engineering, and has also worked at JP Morgan as a senior capital advisor and private banker.

Petaluma, CA-headquartered Greenleaf & Burleson Wealth Management appointed Donnie McCleskey as a managing director.

McCleskey will focus on coordinating and expanding growth in employer-sponsored retirement plans, while also working with a select group of high net worth clients.

McCleskey has about seven years of experience in the financial services and retirement planning industry, having worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bloomberg Finance and Advisory Consulting Group.  

New York-listed Blackstone brought in Jim Albaugh as a senior advisor to strengthen its private equity activities in the aerospace and defense sectors.

Albaugh, who previously served as chief executive and president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, will also advise other businesses and clients across Blackstone’s platforms.    

At Boeing, Albaugh also served as president and CEO of Boeing defense, space and security; senior vice president of Boeing and president of the space and communications group; and president of Boeing space transportation.

Birmingham, MI-headquartered Schechter Wealth Strategies hired Stephen Blocki as chief operating officer, while Robert Langer filled the newly-created role of managing director of its recently-launched New York office.

Blocki spent the last 20 years at Dürr Systems, where he served as head of the environmental division business, helping the firm expand beyond North America into Mexico, China and Korea.

Langer spent the last ten years managing and running hedge funds. Most recently, he headed up fixed income sales and trading at BTIG, a boutique broker-dealer based in New York City.

Bruce Karpati left the Securities and Exchange Commission to join Prudential Investments as chief compliance officer.

In addition to leading compliance for Prudential’s registered investment advisory company, Karpati will also serve as CCO of the firm's mutual funds boards.

Karpati spent over 12 years at the SEC, most recently as national chief enforcement officer within its asset management unit. In this role, which he took up when the unit launched in 2010, he led enforcement efforts involving investment advisors, investment companies, mutual funds and private funds.

BNY Mellon Investment Management appointed Bruce Feibel as head of performance analytics - a new role at the firm in which he will oversee performance and risk analysis processes.

Reporting to Cynthia Steer, head of manager research and investment solutions, Feibel will analyze the factors that drive returns and create risks for investment strategies and portfolios.

Feibel joined BNY Mellon in 1999 and prior to his new role was head of strategy for the global investment services business.

He previously worked at State Street Global Advisors, providing performance measurement services to the marketing, portfolio management and client services teams.

Chicago, IL-headquartered HighTower brought in Frank Epinger from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management as an executive director in Los Angeles, CA. 

At Morgan Stanley, Epinger was a branch manager and senior vice president in Pasadena, CA.

Atlantic Trust, the private wealth management division of New York-listed Invesco, added Jennifer Kane to its Houston, TX, office as a senior vice president and relationship manager.

Kane has over 12 years of industry experience and joined from Front Barnett Associates, where she served as a lead portfolio manager and member of the firm’s investment committee.

Previously, she was a junior portfolio manager and portfolio analyst at Atlantic Trust's Chicago, IL, office, and a portfolio analyst with Fayez Sarofim & Company in Houston.

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, appointed Scott Lampard as chief country officer for Canada.

Reporting to Jacques Brand, chief executive of North America, Lampard replaced Paul Jurist, who decided to retire after serving for 15 years at Deutsche Bank. Jurist had been the firm’s CCO for Canada for the past 12 years.

Lampard, with more than 20 years of international capital markets experience, joined Deutsche bank in 2010, where for the last three years he has been responsible for the markets business in Canada, overseeing investments across the fixed income, equities and commodities platforms.

Lampard will continue his current responsibilities at Deutsche Bank as head of markets for Canada, and will continue to report to Jeffrey Mayer, head of corporate banking and securities, North America.

Citi Private Bank appointed Steven Wieting as global chief strategist, reporting to Eduardo Martinez Campos, global head of investments.

In his new role, Wieting will be responsible for formulating investment views and strategies for the business and its clients around the world.

He will also be appointed chair of the global investment committee and joined the investments leadership team.

US Bancorp Investments, an affiliate of US Bank, appointed Steve Felchle and Jason Ernst as financial advisors in Bismarck, ND.  

Felchle and Ernst joined from Wells Fargo, where they managed $160 million in client assets. 

Felchle has over 33 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to working as a financial advisor at Wells Fargo, he served as vice president of business and agricultural banking at Norwest Bank.

Ernst has about 11 years of industry experience and was also formerly a financial advisor at Wells Fargo.

Sendero Wealth Management, a San Antonio, TX-based wealth management firm, expanded its footprint to Dallas.

As part of its expansion Sendero hired John Stanley Stevenson to lead its operations in North Texas, as managing director of the new office.

Stevenson has a 20-year background in the wealth management advice industry, having worked at Northern Trust and Belmont Wealth Management.

In his new role at Sendero he will be working with wealthy families and charitable institutions in the Dallas and Fort Worth markets.

St Louis, MO-headquartered brokerage firm Benjamin F Edwards made 10 hires across its two new offices in Birmingham, AL, and Destin, FL, while also adding to its existing locations in White Plains, NY, and Chattanooga, TN. 

Overall, the firm took on 12 new employees, including nine financial advisors.

In Birmingham, Steven Phillips joined as branch manager and senior vice president of investments. He has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Meanwhile, Thomas Luttrell started as vice president of investments. He has over 25 years of experience in the brokerage industry and is a member of the Luttrell Financial Group, which he co-founded with his brother, James Luttrell, in 1999.

Assisting Phillips and Luttrell in Birmingham with their client management responsibilities is Ashley Brook, a financial associate.

In Destin, James Luttrell stepped into the new office as vice president of investments. He has 30 years of experience in the brokerage industry. Matthew Dahlman joined as a financial consultant.

Nicholas Barlotta, a member of the Barlotta Cauley Wealth Management Group, also moved to Destin as senior vice president of investments.

Other members of the Barlotta Cauley Wealth Management Group include Daniel Cauley, vice president of investments, and Nicholas Barlotta, a financial consultant.

Marti Lohr and Maeve Brennan were also hired in Destin as senior registered financial associates.

With the exception of Brennan in the Destin office, all of the appointees that joined in Destin and Birmingham previously worked at Wells Fargo Advisors.

In other moves, the firm appointed Darrelyn Brennan in White Plains as vice president of investments.   

Lastly, Thomas Trivers stepped into the Chattanooga office as a financial advisor, joining from Hilliard Lyons.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management appointed three financial advisors - with combined client assets of $460 million - in New York, Arkansas and Florida.

In Mount Kisco, NY, Paul Bagnato - with production of $1.7 million on $165 million in client assets - joined from Wells Fargo and reports to Mark Willis, branch manager.

Alissa Carloss joined in Jackon, TN, from Stifel Nicolaus. Her annual production is around $1 million on $135 million in client assets.

Carloss reports to John Terry, complex manager in Little Rock, AK. Her father, Terry Nance, also joined her team as a consulting group analyst.

Meanwhile, Robbie DeRooy joined Morgan Stanley in West Palm Beach, FL, from UBS Wealth Management Americas.

New York-listed CTPartners, the global executive search firm, hired Noah Schwarz as a principal within its financial services practice.

Based in New York, Schwarz will focus on serving clients in investment banking, private equity and asset management.

Schwarz joined from Heidrick & Struggles, where he was a member of the firm’s global financial services practice. His clients include investment banks and private equity firms, as well as asset managers, wealth managers and family offices.

California-based Whittier Trust, the independent investment and wealth management firm, appointed Thomas Frank as executive vice president and Northern California regional manager, and Lisa Parker as vice president of philanthropic services.

Frank was formerly a director at Abbot Downing, Wells Fargo’s ultra high net worth unit. He has 26 years of experience working with high net worth individuals and families, having also worked at Bessemer Trust for 15 years. 

In his new San Francisco, CA-based role, Frank will source and manage client relationships, while overseeing all aspects of the firm’s business in Northern California. He will also sit on the firm’s executive committee.

Also based in San Francisco, Parker will consult HNW clients and their families on a range of philanthropic management issues including private foundation and donor-advised fund administration, grant making, talent and leadership development and next generation education and training.

Prior to joining Whittier Trust, Parker was the founder and principal of Family Circle Advisors. She spent the previous 15 years as president and executive director of the Lawrence Welk Family Foundation.

Canfield, OH-based Farmers National Financial Services appointed Jeffrey Tonini as a senior vice president and director of wealth management. 

Tonini will lead the bank’s financial services division, assisting clients with financial planning, retirement planning, investment strategies and overall wealth management.

Ashvin Chhabra rejoined Merrill Lynch Wealth Management as chief investment officer and head of investment management and guidance, based in New York. He replaced Lisa Shalett.

Chhabra, who served as head of wealth strategies and analytics at Merrill between 2001 and 2007, will oversee the delivery of investment advice and strategy to financial advisors and their clients.

Additionally, Chhabra will lead investment management and guidance of manager due diligence, investment analytics and the ultra high net worth investment office.

Chhabra most recently served as the chief investment officer at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. He spent six years there, during which time he worked closely with the institute’s board of trustees’ investment committee.

John Mathews took over from Jason Chandler as head of private wealth management within UBS' US brokerage unit, as the Swiss bank looks to grow its ultra high net worth business in the Americas.

Chandler previously oversaw the private wealth unit, which caters to UHNW clients with over $10 million in investable assets and includes about 340 advisors, as well as the wider Americas advisory force of some 7,000 brokers.

Going forwards, Chandler will continue to oversee the broader advisor group, but Mathews, who was previously a regional director in the southeast US, will lead the UHNW unit.

Both men report to Bob Mulholland, head of wealth management and investment solutions for UBS in the Americas.

Mathews now oversees all of UBS' private wealth offices in the US, which include branches in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Stamford, CT.

Leawood, KS-based Palmer Square Capital Management, the hedge fund-of-fund specialist, hired Jeffrey Fox as executive director.

Reporting to chief investment officer Angie Long, Fox will focus on managing the analytics, trading and modeling behind the firm’s structured credit and collateralized loan obligations platform.  

He will also play a key role in new product development and working with the rating agencies.

Fox has over a decade of fixed income experience and previously served as a managing director at Sandler O’Neill and Partners, an investment banking firm and broker-dealer.

George Howe joined US Capital Advisors as a director at the firm’s new office in Austin, TX.

Howe joined after having previously managed his own advisory practice at Raymond James since 2001. Before that, he spent 17 years at Standard & Poor’s.

Cleveland, OH-based Cedar Brook Financial Partners hired Jo Ross as an executive assistant.

Ross has over 20 years of industry experience and will serve as client manager for Josh Melda, a partner at the firm.

Ross formerly worked at Simon Property Group as a guest services manager and has also worked in the private banking and investing group at KeyCorp. Before that, she was a legal assistant to attorneys at law firms in Cleveland, including Baker & Hostetler, Calfee Halter and McDonald Hopkins.

Perspecta Trust, the New Hampshire-based trust and wealth management firm, promoted Scott Baker to president, and hired Todd Mayo as a principal.

Baker succeeded Paul Montrone, who had been president of the firm since it was founded in 2007. Montrone will remain as chairman and chief executive.

Baker has 20 years of experience in the wealth management industry and joined Perspecta in 2009 after a career with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup in New York City.

New York-based Signature Bank brought in three private client banking teams in Manhattan, Great Neck and Brooklyn.

The first team joined in Manhattan from Citibank and is comprised of Joan McNulty, group director and senior vice president; Melissa Badger, associate group director and vice president; and Manuel Chalen, a senior client associate.

McNulty worked closely with Badger and Chalen for ten and five years, respectively, at Citibank. Badger, previously sales manager of treasury products and vice president at Citibank, has 23 years of banking experience, focused mostly on middle market clients.

Based in Great Neck, NY, the second team is made up of Chris Panellino, group director and senior vice president, and associate group directors Helen Dounias and Jason Torres. They all joined from HSBC in Glen Oaks, NY.

US Bancorp Investments, an affiliate of US Bank, appointed Benjamin Jensen as a financial advisor in Anacortes, WA.

Jensen has about seven years of experience working in the Anacortes market and regionally as a financial advisor for another firm.

Investment manager Neuberger Berman ramped up its expertise in the emerging market debt sector, hiring 22 specialists in this asset class.

Of the new hires, 19 joined from ING Investment Management, where they managed over $16 billion invested in emerging market debt.

The 22 staff are made up of 12 portfolio managers, six credit analysts and four economists. They will be based across the US, Europe and Asia.

They joined a 100-strong fixed income team at Neuberger Berman, led by Brad Tank, chief investment officer of fixed income.

The firm’s new emerging market debt platform is led by Rob Drijkoningen, based in The Hague, and Gorky Urquieta, based in Atlanta.

Other professionals that joined the firm are: Bart van der Made (The Hague), Raoul Luttik (The Hague),  Jennifer Gorgoll (Atlanta), Nish Popat (The Hague), and Prashant Singh (Singapore).

Umpqua Bank, part of Umpqua Holdings, expanded its private banking division into the Puget Sound region of Washington, hiring from Wells Fargo Private Bank to staff the new operation.

Elise Fortin, who has been in the wealth management industry for around 25 years, joined Umpqua as senior vice president and market leader, responsible for the private banking team serving clients in Seattle and the surrounding area. 

Fortin was latterly a senior vice president at Wells Fargo Private Bank and has also worked in senior sales and business roles at US Trust, Northern Trust, Key Bank and First Union Bank.

BMO Harris Private Banking, part of BMO Financial Group, promoted Yannick Archambault to vice president and chief operating officer in Toronto.

Archambault was replaced in his former role of vice president and managing director by Alan Desnoyers, who was previously vice president of personal banking for BMO Bank of Montreal.

Based in Quebec, Desnoyers will lead a team of about 100 professionals who provide services in the areas of banking, investment management, estate, trust, succession planning and philanthropy.

Ameriprise Financial bolstered its advisor force in six states and added $960 million in client assets with hires from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Advisors, UBS Wealth Management Americas and LPL Financial.

In Connecticut, John Nelson and Jon Nelson joined from Wells Fargo Advisors, where they managed $125 million in client assets. They are now based at Ameriprise’s Norwalk office in Fairfield County.

Leasha Flammio-Watson previously managed $90 million in client assets at Wells Fargo and joins in Melbourne, FL, while Mark Aronson - also formerly of Wells - joined in Mount Laurel, NJ. Aronson has about 30 years of industry experience and at Wells Fargo managed $126 million in client assets.

The firm also appointed Jay Geaslen in Alpharetta, GA, from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He was an advisor at Merrill for over a decade, managing $194 million in client assets.

Meanwhile, Norman Howarth joined in Massachusetts from LPL Financial, which is part of LPL Financial Holdings. Howarth previously managed $195 million in client assets and is now based in Charlestown.

In Florham Park, NJ, Ameriprise brought in Donald Jones and Trevor Jones from UBS Wealth Management Americas. The pair managed $80 million at UBS.

Lastly, William Patton joined Ameriprise from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in Virginia Beach, VA. Patton has worked in the industry for 40 years and managed $150 million in client assets at Morgan Stanley.

Chicago-based Northern Trust named Ronnie Powell has head of the Austin, TX, region, where he will lead a team of people dedicated to wealth preservation and growth.

Powell has been with the firm since 2006, when he joined after a career working with both Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney in Dallas, TX. He replaced Craig Falls, who left the firm.

Powell’s team will focus on wealth management including asset management, estate planning, trust administration and private banking, working with individuals, foundations, endowments and privately-held businesses.

BMO Global Asset Management, part of BMO Financial Group, promoted managing director John Boritzke as head of fixed income.

Boritzke will continue as co-manager of the BMO Intermediate Tax-Free Strategy, which includes responsibility for separately managed accounts and the BMO Intermediate Tax-Free Fund.

Boritzke has 30 years of investment experience and will continue to be based in Milwaukee.

He has worked at the firm since 1983 and his past experience includes duties as manager of the BMO Prime Money Market Fund and the BMO Government Money Market Fund.