A summary of moves in the North American wealth sector during May this year.

State Street appointed Taryn Siglain as the new head of financing solutions. She succeeded Gino Timperio, who retired from State Street at the end of June after a 35-year career with the firm. She reports to Tony Bisegna, head of global markets.

Siglain joined State Street in early 2023 as global head of prime services. Prior to joining State Street, she spent 15 years at Morgan Stanley.

BNY Mellon appointed Kevin Weeks as global head of sales and relationship management for its corporate trust business. Prior to this, Weeks worked at US Bank where he was head of sales for global corporate trust and custody. Weeks is based in New York City, reporting to Cécile Nagel, global head of corporate trust.

Vistra, a provider of essential business services, appointed David Reichert as director of international expansion solutions. Based in Boston, Reichert reports to Antonio Soler, Vistra’s global head of corporate business.

He worked at Vistra previously, through its acquisition of Radius Worldwide in 2018. Prior to returning to Vistra, Reichert was product lead at Automatic Data Processing, in its Research and Development center in New York City.

Baird added Joe Sholden as a director and financial advisor to its private wealth management office in Fort Worth, Texas. Sholden came from Wells Fargo, where he managed over $195 million in assets. He has more than 25 years of industry experience.

Orion, which provides wealthtech solutions for fiduciary advisors, appointed Ron Pruitt as president of Orion Wealth Management. He has served as senior vice president of Nasdaq Analytics – formed from the acquisition of eVestment and Solovis – where he provided investment analytics and market intelligence to asset managers, asset owners and institutional investment consultants. 

Heather Ettinger retired at the end of June as chairwoman of Fairport Wealth, a registered investment advisor headquartered in Cleveland. Her career stretched back to 1987.

Franklin Templeton named London-based Matt Harrison as head of Americas (ex-US), Europe and UK, global advisory services. Harrison continues to report to Adam Spector, EVP, global advisory services, in his expanded role. Harrison has been head of Europe and UK and co-head of APAC and managing director of Australia since joining Franklin Templeton in 2018. Andrew Ashton remains responsible for Canada. 

Fifth Avenue Financial, a financial services company based in New York City, appointed senior industry figure Steven Randall as a managing director. Randall brought more than 25 years’ experience to the job.

Spectrum Investment Advisors, an RIA, made three additions to its team: Max Flanagan, Blaine Disrud, and Marina Moths. 

RBC Wealth Management brought in two financial advisor teams to its Bel Air office from Merrill Lynch, bringing a total of $900 million in client assets. The Barnes Group brought about $600 million in assets. It includes David Barnes, managing director – financial advisor, who has 30 years of industry experience, and Paula Gay, assistant vice president – client associate.

The second team, Pollard, runs about $300 million in client assets. It comprises: Patrick Pollard, SVP, financial advisor; Paul Sierocinski, associate VP, senior business associate; and Victoria Webster, AVP, client associate. RBC WM also brought in a former Truist advisory team in Nashville, holding around $730 million in client assets. 

Vanguard named former BlackRock senior figure, Salim Ramji as the new CEO. Ramji took the helm from Tim Buckley who retired and stepped down as CEO and chairman.

Ramji has more than 25 years’ experience in investments, capital markets and wealth management, including a decade as a senior leader at BlackRock – he left in January 2024. Most recently, Ramji was global head of iShares and index investing.

Greg Davis, president and chief investment officer, was appointed to join Vanguard’s board of directors. Mark Loughridge, Vanguard’s lead independent director, was appointed non-executive chairman.

Argent Financial Group added Karen Saunders as market president at Argent Trust Company in San Antonio. Saunders, who reports to Argent’s CEO, Reid Harrell, has over 15 years of extensive banking experience, having previously served as vice president and business manager at JP Morgan Private Bank and Bernstein Private Wealth Management.

Petra Funds Group, a fund administration provider to private equity and debt funds, hired Steven Antonson as chief of staff. Antonson has 15 years of experience in finance and operations. 

PGIM Investments appointed Laurie Chan as US head of alternative solutions. Chan reports to Dominick Carlino, global head of alternative investments for PGIM Investments. Before this role, from 2022 Chan was Citigroup’s global head of alternative investments sales; prior to this, she was head of ISG capital markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, working there for 17 years.

Ohio-based DayMark Wealth Partners brought in financial advisors Thomas Hofstetter and Daniel Baron as the Hofstetter Baron Group of DayMark Wealth Partners. Previously a Wells Fargo Advisors team managing $585 million, Southport, Connecticut-based Hofstetter Baron Group advises high net worth families and individuals.

Integrated Partners, an RIA with more than $18 billion in assets under advisement, promoted Andree Mohr to president. Mohr, who has worked at the firm since 2015, joined the organization as director of business development. 

Allspring Global Investments appointed Annette Lege to join the executive leadership team as chief financial officer, based in the firm’s Charlotte headquarters. She reports to Allspring’s president Kate Burke.

Nepsis, a US financial advisor and investment management firm, appointed Amanda Butler as chief technology officer. Butler, who served as an outsourced consultant for Nepsis® for over a decade, has more than two decades of technology experience. Most recently, she was principal at Mosaik Consulting.

Rockefeller Global Family Office, the wealth management division of Rockefeller Capital Management, added a Morgan Stanley team – known as Landau Wealth Partners – in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The team includes managing director and private advisor Adam Landau; vice president and private advisor Ramy Georgy; VP and team director of investments Garland Neal; and VP and team chief operating officer Karla Lavin.

The group, formerly from Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, reports to Kristen Sario, Southeast divisional director of Rockefeller Global Family Office.

Russell Investments appointed John Roche as head of RIA distribution. The role is newly created. Roche reports to Brad Jung, head of North America Advisor & Intermediary Solutions at Russell Investments. 

US firm Private Advisor Group brought Ethan Campbell, wealth advisor of Stones River Wealth Management, into its community of advisors. Based in Woodbury, Tennessee, team members also include Collin Reed, wealth advisor and Alana Hale, office administrator. 

State Street appointed former Citigroup figure Elizabeth Lynn as executive vice president and global head of investor relations. Lynn reports to Eric Aboaf, vice chairman and chief financial officer for the firm. 

Fiduciary Trust Company, a Boston-headquartered financial services firm, hired David Krall as a vice president and fiduciary specialist. Prior to joining Fiduciary, Krall was a senior fiduciary strategist at Comerica, where he supported several broker-dealers

Fiducient Advisors, an affiliate of NFP, an Aon company, named Mike Goss as president. He took over from Mark Wetzel, who had served as the company’s managing partner and president since 2006. Goss retained his role as chief revenue officer.

EP Wealth Advisors, an RIA, added Joe Palumbo and Adam Fein as senior vice presidents, both focusing on professional athletes, coaches, collegiate athletes with name/image/likeness deals and high net worth individuals. Palumbo and Fein are from RBC Wealth Management, where they served as vice president and senior financial associate, respectively, in the sports and entertainment practice group. Their client roster includes two athletes selected in the first round of last week’s NFL draft, NFL veterans, a UFC champion, and more. EP advisors across the country serve a number of athletes, including PGA and NHL professionals. 

RBC Wealth Management in the US brought in a financial advisor to its Century City office with about $780 million in client assets and deposits, as well as a significant lending portfolio. Mike Shayestehfar, managing director, joined from First Republic Bank/JPMorgan, along with support staff member Eliana Garcia, client associate.

Brian Hughes was made president of Eton Advisors, the Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based multi-family office.

Hughes was an executive at Threshold Group. Hughes later headed the consultancy Hughes Growth Strategy and co-founded the marketing firm Touchpoint Growth Strategies.

Raymond James:
The financial institutions' arm of Raymond James brought in a five-advisor team, along with four other figures, to Pinnacle Asset Management, located at Pinnacle Financial Partners, a current FID-affiliated branch.

Operating as part of Pinnacle's new Ponte Vedra, Florida office, The Horizon Group arrived from Truist, where they managed about $947 million in client assets.

Raymond James welcomed financial advisor Brad Blaisdell to its independent advisor channel. Arriving from Edward Jones, Blaisdell previously managed about $125 million in client assets.

Raymond James brought in four former Wells Fargo advisors to St Petersburg. the advisors work under the brand of Lelekis, Ellis, Kilczewski Private Wealth Management Group of Raymond James. They include advisors Emmanuel Lelekis, Sharon Ellis-Champagne, Brian Kilczewski and Chadd Eaton as well as client service associates Maria Bollo, Tanya Schiller and Katherine Robertson.

The firm also announced a raft of executive leadership changes, taking effect from October 1 this year:

Butch Oorlog, chief accounting officer of Raymond James Financial, was named Raymond James Financial’s chief financial officer, taking over from Paul Shoukry, who had been made the new CEO, replacing Paul Reilly. 

Tom Walrond, senior vice president and division director, was named president of Raymond James and Associates’ (RJA) private client group. He replaced Tash Elwyn who, as previously announced, became president of the company’s private client group. 

Steve Raney, CEO and chair of Raymond James Bank, was promoted to oversee the firm’s bank segment and became executive chairman of Raymond James Bank. Amanda Stevens was named CEO of Raymond James Bank.

Steve Hufford, chief operating officer (COO) of investment banking, took over as head of investment banking, on Jim Bunn’s appointment as president of the capital markets segment.

The executive vice president of technology and operations, Bella Allaire became chief administrative officer. Campagnoli was succeeded by technology COO Andy Zolper, who became the firm’s chief information officer.

Tarek Helal, SVP of investments and strategy, was appointed as the firm’s chief strategy officer, a new role. 

Separately, the firm welcomed financial advisors Vincent Zaccardi, Nicholas Zaccardi, and Gerard Mattaliano, to its employee advisor channel. Th advisors operate as the Zaccardi Group of Raymond James. 

San Diego-based advisor Kalyn Walker joined Raymond James at its employee advisor channel. Walker was previously at UBS Financial Services, where she managed about $450 million in client assets. 

A team in Massachusetts overseeing $800 million of client money migrated to Raymond James. Lightship Wealth Strategies joined the firm’s independent advisor channel.

Based in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts, the group’s advisors include Jonathan Wolff, Scott Schutte, Justin Turcotte, Jack Wolff and Evan Mattern. The group arrived from Commonwealth Financial Network.

A husband-and-wife advisor team joined Raymond James, in Edmond, Oklahoma. Mike Sikes and Shaley Sikes joined the firm’s independent advisor channel. Their business, Sikes Wealth Partners, also includes client service manager Susan Moore.