People Moves
Summary Of Industry Moves In The Americas: December 2014
A summary of wealth management industry moves in the Americas during December 2014.
The Carlyle Group, a global asset manager, promoted its interim chief financial officer, Curtis Buser, to CFO. Washington, DC-based Buser had served as Carlyle’s interim CFO since May 2014 and is a member of the firm’s management committee. He has around 30 years of experience in accounting and financial management. He was a partner at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young for 19 years prior to serving as Carlyle's chief accounting officer for ten years.
Ena Licina was appointed as a vice president and trust relationship manager at US Bank's Private Client Reserve in Las Vegas, NV. As a trust relationship manager, Licina provides service and day-to-day management of trusts and estates for individuals and families, corporations and non-profit organizations. She was previously a trust officer at Wells Fargo.
Blue Water Advisors, an independent wealth management firm and SEC-registered investment advisor, named Jeff Wund as its first ever chief operating officer and chief compliance officer. Prior to joining BWA, Wund spent almost 11 years as director of operations and chief compliance officer at Prosper Advisors, an independent SEC-registered firm in Westchester County. He started his career as an advisor at American Express Financial Advisors.
Houston, TX-based Fortiter Wealth Management launched as an independent firm through Dynasty Financial Partners. L Vincent Elliott, managing director of Fortiter Wealth Management, created the firm after leaving Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, where he was a director for ten years. He has also previously worked within the private client group of Bernstein Investment Research & Management as a founding member of the Houston office. Other team members include Carey Cooney, director of client services; Shannon McCue, director of operations; and Harris Britt, analyst. They all previously worked at Deutsche Bank, except Britt who was studying.
US Wealth Management, a network of wealth managers, appointed Chris Zelesnick as managing director of business development in Braintree, MA. Zelesnick will report to John Napolitano, chief executive of US Wealth Management. His focus is on adding fee-based independent financial advisory practices with approximately $50 million to $100 million in assets under management. During his career, Zelesnick has held executive roles in branch development and sales management including leadership of the wealth management division of The Ziegler Companies in Chicago, IL. Prior to that, he was a vice president and divisional director at H&R Block Financial Advisors.
CNB Bank, which a few months ago launched private banking operations, promoted Eric Johnson to vice president of wealth and asset management. Johnson joined CNB Bank as a member of the management training program in 2004 and was then appointed as a trust administrator. In 2010, he was promoted to trust officer and in 2012 to assistant vice president of wealth and asset management.
Margaret Towle joined Merrill Lynch Wealth Management’s Seattle Denali complex in Bainbridge Island, WA, as a financial advisor, reporting to complex director Michael Maroni. From 2011 to 2013 she was a partner and managing director at HighTower Advisors in Minneapolis and Bainbridge Island, where she provided financial advisory services to endowments and wealthy families. Prior to HighTower, from 2008-2011 she was a managing director at Greycourt & Co, focused on ultra high net worth advisory services and outsourced CIO services to select endowments - as well as overseeing research and development across traditional and alternative asset classes. Earlier still, Towle was executive vice president and chief investment officer at Northern Trust Global Advisors from 2001 to 2005.
South Florida investment advisors Grant Conness and Andrew Costa - co-founders and managing directors of Global Wealth Management in Fort Lauderdale – recruited the former professional baseball player Richard Giannotti as president of the firm's recently-launched athlete asset management division.
Merrill Lynch recruited a complex director within its San Francisco, CA, office in the shape of a former Seattle Seahawks football player. Willie Thomas, who has been in the financial industry for over 20 years, will lead a team of 160 financial advisors in the Bay area. Thomas joined from MetLife, where he was market leader for greater Pittsburgh. Prior to this he spent six years at Wells Fargo Advisors, overseeing the firm’s New York office with $7 billion in assets under management. He returned to Merrill Lynch after starting his career there in 1995, where he joined a fast-track program training him in account services, marketing research, loyalty marketing and technology.
Atlantic Trust, the US private wealth management division of CIBC, added Josh Miller and Mark Kane in Boston, MA, as managing director and senior wealth strategist, and senior vice president and business development officer, respectively. Boston is Atlantic Trust's largest office, with over $6.4 billion in assets and 43 relationship, portfolio management, client service and business development professionals. Miller has over 11 years of industry experience and was latterly a senior relationship manager and wealth strategist at BNY Mellon Wealth Management. Previously, he practiced at the law firm Choate, Hall & Stewart. Kane was formerly a vice president at Bernstein Global Wealth Management, where he provided asset allocation and wealth planning advice to high net worth individuals and families.
The international law firm Withers Bergman hired estate planning attorney Genevieve Larson. She joined the firm's San Francisco, CA, office as a partner from Farella Braun + Martel and has worked extensively with US family businesses - and particularly those in the California wine and agriculture industries - on their succession planning, the formulation of governance structures and broader commercial legal matters.
US Capital Advisors hired Morris Gottesman - latterly of Wells Fargo - as a senior managing director in Austin, TX. At Wells Fargo, Gottesman was a senior vice president of investments, serving high net worth clients. He began his career in commercial real estate but transitioned to the financial services industry in 1988. He moved to Prudential Securities in 2001, which merged with Wachovia and, ultimately, Wells Fargo Advisors. The move reunited Gottesman with his long-time friend and former regional president, Ford McTee, who joined USCA two years ago to run the firm's Austin market.
Financial advisors Robert Walsh and Travis Jaggers formed the Walsh Jaggers Group of Raymond James & Associates - the traditional employee broker-dealer of Raymond James - in Louisville, KY. Walsh and Jaggers – vice presidents of investments - joined from Wells Fargo in Louisville, where they managed $116 million in client assets and had annual fees and commissions of around $900,000. With nearly 20 years of industry experience, Walsh began his financial services career in 1995 with Morgan Stanley before joining Wachovia/Wells Fargo in 2005 as a financial advisor. Jaggers also began his financial services career with Morgan Stanley in 1999 in Louisville and joined forces with Walsh in 2001. Together they moved to Wachovia/Wells Fargo in 2005. The team also includes Starr Michelle Epperson, a client service associate who started working with Walsh and Jaggers in 2001 at Morgan Stanley and then made the move with them to Wells Fargo, and then Raymond James. The Walsh Jaggers Group serves high net worth individuals, families and institutions.
Erik Davidson was appointed as chief investment officer of Wells Fargo Private Bank, taking over the reins from Dean Junkans, who retired. As CIO - based in San Francisco, CA - Davidson will oversee the private bank’s global equity, fixed income portfolio management and research, alternative investments, guided portfolios, investment products, investment tools and investment analytics. Alongside the firm's regional leaders, he will also jointly oversee the regional chief investment officers as well as investment and fiduciary senior directors. Davidson has worked at Wells Fargo Private Bank for ten years in a number of investment leadership positions - at both the regional and national level. Specific roles he has held include deputy chief investment officer, managing director of investments, senior director of investments and regional investment manager.
Ellis & Ellis, an advisory firm based in The Woodlands, TX, joined the United Capital partnership, representing the firm's seventh office in Texas and its 50th nationwide. Ellis & Ellis was founded in 1989 by Byron Ellis and has more than $500 million in assets under management for around 700 households. Formerly affiliated with Ameriprise Financial, Ellis joins United Capital as a managing director and brings with him ten professionals who have responsibilities as wealth advisors, assistant wealth advisors and those in administrative services.
BNY Mellon Wealth Management hired Andrew Crofton as a senior wealth director for business development in Manhattan and Garden City, NY, reporting to managing director Katia Friend. Crofton’s hire was part of a two-year strategic expansion of the firm’s sales force in what it regards as key wealth markets. He was latterly a private client advisor at US Trust, working in business development for ultra high net worth individuals and families. Before that, he was an executive director in institutional equity sales at JP Morgan in Manhattan.
Philadelphia, PA-based the Glenmede Trust Company, an investment and wealth management firm, recruited Mark Nurse as a senior portfolio manager in Princeton, NJ. Prior to joining Glenmede, Nurse was director of investments at PNC Wealth Management. In his former role as senior vice president, he was responsible for the northern and central New Jersey wealth management group's investment activities. Before that, he was a senior investment advisor at the firm and, earlier still, was a vice president and senior portfolio manager at JP Morgan Private Bank.
Raymond James & Associates recruited father-and-son team Erwin and Terry Bry, as well as sales associate Lori Fugate, in St Louis, MO. Erwin, Terry and Fugate have nearly 100 years of combined experience. Erwin began his career as a financial advisor in the late 1960s and has worked with Lori for more than 15 years. Terry joined the business in 1985 after a career in the rare coin industry. All three worked together at AG Edwards, which later transitioned into Wells Fargo, where they previously managed more than $220 million in client assets.
New Jersey-based Beacon Wealth Management, a registered investment advisory firm, bolstered its human capital resources by promoting Kerry Crowley to manager of operations. Crowley will oversee all of Beacon’s operational processes, as well as the firm’s technology infrastructure. She is also a member of the firm’s investment advisory group. Crowley joined Beacon in 2009 after working at the wealth management division of a large financial institution, the firm said. She has since held positions in portfolio analysis, reporting and trading.
City National Rochdale, a wholly-owned subsidiary of City National Bank, appointed David Garza as a director of portfolio management in Beverly Hills, CA. Garza is responsible for managing City National Rochdale's US group of portfolio managers and support teams, reporting to Bruce Simon, City National Rochdale's chief investment officer.
First Republic Bank, a private bank and wealth management firm, added Boris Groysberg, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Duncan Niederauer, former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, to its board of directors. Groysberg is an author, researcher and business consultant who is an expert in organizational behavior, First Republic said. He has taught at Harvard Business School for 12 years. After serving as the CEO of NYSE Euronext from 2007-2013, Niederauer merged NYSE Euronext with Intercontinental Exchange and served as president of ICE and CEO of the NYSE until his retirement in 2014. Prior to that, he worked for Goldman Sachs for 22 years.
US Bank's Private Client Reserve – which works with clients with at least $3 million in investable assets – appointed Shannon Baustian as a senior wealth planner in the Twin Cities. Baustian - who has more than 18 years of industry experience – was previously director of client service at Market Street Trust Company. The same week, Market Street promoted Michael Eisner to senior vice president and Rachel Sherman to vice president of client service.
US Trust, part of Bank of America's global wealth and investment management unit, made 11 new hires coast-to-coast from firms including Citigroup and Rockefeller. In the northeast, the firm made hires in four states: Euching Lin joined the New York office as a private client advisor (PCA) from Citigroup while Felicia Yieh Pan also joined the NY office as a PCA from Rockefeller & Co. Meanwhile, Don Smith stepped into the Boston, MA, office as a PCA from F L Putnam Investment Management Company and in Connecticut Brian Sheehan - formerly a senior trust officer with US Trust - assumed a new position as a PCA in West Hartford. Additionally, Brian Fink joined the Westport, CT, branch as a PCA from Pacilio Wealth Management/Washington Wealth Management.
In New Jersey, Aimee Troy was appointed in Florham Park as a senior trust officer from Levine DeSantis. In the southeast, Carlos Rodriguez joined the Tampa, FL, office as a wealth strategies advisor from SunTrust Bank while in Washington Brent Smith joined the DC branch as a PCA from Citigroup. US Trust also hired Elizabeth Leicht in Houston, TX, as a senior trust officer from Woodway Financial Advisors as Todd Braulick – formerly a trust officer with US Trust – assumed a new position as a PCA in San Antonio, TX. To the west, Shirley Cruz - formerly a private client manager with Bank of America Corporation - was promoted to PCA in Las Vegas, NV.
Lebenthal Wealth Advisors, the wealth management division of Lebenthal Holdings, hired a new team in the shape of Annette Hall and Charlene Fisher in New York. Hall has more than 30 years of experience in the wealth management industry, the last 25 of which she spent at Key Private Bank. There, as vice president and relationship manager, she oversaw $193 million in assets under management. She provides financial services including investment management and estate planning for high net worth individuals and families, as well as corporate clients. Fisher has around 20 years of experience in marketing and finance in the entertainment, sports and communication industries, having most recently worked as co-founder and president of an independent film distribution, finance and marketing company.
Bermuda-headquartered Clarien Bank appointed its inaugural head of private banking to lead the specialized business efforts of the department. Clare Spearing will take up the role on January 12 and will provide overall strategic direction for the division. Prior to Spearing’s appointment, Clarien’s private banking division was led by Paul Finn, head of global wealth management at the firm, under the umbrella of the firm’s wealth management offering. Henceforth, Spearing will be directly responsible for the private banking division on a standalone basis. She will report to Finn, who will continue to oversee Clarien's entire global wealth management division.
US Bank hired John Briggs as a wealth management consultant and entertainment industry specialist at its Private Client Reserve in Nashville, TN. Briggs will develop relationships with clients in the entertainment industry including musicians, actors, producers and others to understand their unique goals and aspirations. Prior to joining the PCR – which works with individuals with at least $3 million in investable assets - Briggs worked for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers as a vice president. He has spent his career assisting clients by evaluating entertainment industry-related businesses opportunities and creating high-net-worth networking alliances.
Damon Williams and Alex Khein were appointed as co-chief executives of RBC Global Asset Management, taking over from current CEO John Montalbano, who will become vice chairman of RBC Wealth Management. The leadership transition is effective as of May 1, 2015. In their respective Vancouver- and London-based roles, Williams and Khein will report to George Lewis, group head of RBC Wealth Management & RBC Insurance. As vice chairman of RBC Wealth Management, Montalbano – who will continue reporting to Lewis – will support business development and projects for the division as well as other RBC businesses. He will also advise the co-CEOs of RBC GAM and Lewis, particularly with respect to merger and acquisition opportunities for RBC GAM.
Market Street Trust Company, a multi-family office, made two executive promotions: Michael Eisner to senior vice president and Rachel Sherman to vice president of client service. Eisner will retain his role of chief investment officer while Sherman was previously director of client service. They will both report to Market Street’s president and chief executive, Marianne Young. Eisner will continue to lead the firm’s investment team and will have an expanded role in driving long-term firm strategy.
The Presidio Group, an independent financial services firm, brought in Steve Aucamp and Brian Pierson from Convergent Wealth Advisors as managing directors and co-heads of its new office in Washington, DC. Samantha Dean and Brad Lackey, also both formerly with Convergent Wealth Advisors, also joined Aucamp and Pierson in the DC office as vice presidents. Aucamp has over 20 years of experience advising ultra-wealthy individuals and family offices. Prior to joining Convergent Wealth Advisors in 2004, he served as vice president and relationship manager of Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management. Before that, he practiced law for 11 years. Pierson meanwhile was previously a director in the advisory group of Convergent Wealth Advisors, having joined that firm in 2000. Prior to Convergent, he worked at NASDAQ. Dean spent the last nine years at Convergent Wealth Advisors – also most recently as a director in the advisory group – while Lackey was an associate director at the firm.
Mark Evans was appointed as managing director of investments at US Bank's Ascent Private Capital Management, which works with individuals and families with at least $50 million in net worth. Evans was latterly a principal at the institutional investment advisor Slocum, having previously been a manager at Deloitte. In the latter role his client duties included planning, supervision, review, reporting, development of financial statements and budgeting/staffing of engagements for the audit, business valuation and dispute consulting units of the firm. He was also selected to participate in Deloitte's global development program, which he completed in Luxembourg.
Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, a wealth management and private banking firm, hired Elizabeth Connelly as vice president of trust services, based at the bank's headquarters. Connelly’s primary focus is to work with the sales and client advisor teams to provide trust administration, management and fiduciary review services for trust accounts. She has over 22 years of banking and law experience, having worked as a wealth strategist at Atlantic Trust; an associate in the trusts and estates department at Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster; an associate in the private client group at Deutsch Williams; and a financial services and global custody professional at Brown Brothers Harriman.
Doug Conklin joined the HighTower Network’s Ezzell Group to form the Ezzell-Conklin Group, based in Sacramento, CA. The Ezzell team - which includes Jason Ezzell, Alec Fisher and Gina Clark - joined the HighTower Network in May of 2014. Conklin, a managing director, is transitioning $225 million in assets under management, increasing the practice’s total assets under advisement to approximately $525 million. He was previously first vice president and a founding partner of the CES Group at Merrill Lynch, where he began his career in wealth management in 1983.
Raymond James & Associates, the traditional employee broker-dealer of Raymond James Financial, hired a team of advisors from JP Morgan to open RJA's first office in Manhattan. Operating as Quattuor Capital Partners of Raymond James, the team previously managed almost $900 million in client assets and had annual production in excess of $6.7 million. The team is led by managing director Howard Franzblau and also includes: managing directors Richard Devine, Wayne Froud and David Brennan; senior investment management specialists Jason Franzblau and Al Myrie; senior registered sales associates Stacy Galli and Yvette Viani; and senior sales associate Mitzi Phillips.
Atlantic Trust, the US private wealth management division of CIBC, appointed Ryan Coulson as senior vice president and wealth strategist in San Francisco and Newport Beach, CA. Coulson is latterly of Wells Fargo Private Bank, and before that worked within the estate and tax law practice at Centara Legal Group. Atlantic Trust's San Francisco and Newport Beach offices are home to 20 relationship and portfolio managers, client service and business development professionals who manage more than $2.8 billion in assets.
The Glenmede Trust Company, an investment and wealth management firm, added Joseph Pew to its board of directors, succeeding Ethel Benson Wister, who retired in September.
Former wirehouse advisors Eddie Barber and Russ Tobler left RBC Wealth Management and joined Washington Wealth Management, the US independent hybrid RIA supporting fee- and commission-based independent advisor practices. Barber and Tobler have over 30 years of combined experience in the financial services sector and approximately $180 million in total assets under advisement. At this point WWM had recruited 12 new advisory practices since it was acquired by NFP in March 2014. As part of his transition, Barber, who managed some $140 million in assets under advisement, affiliated with WWM as a newly-formed independent practice, Barber Investment Partners. Meanwhile, Tobler's practice, Avion Asset Management, also joined WWM as a newly formed independent practice and has assets under advisement of approximately $42 million.
The TCW Group, a global asset management firm, hired Yuri Khalif as a managing director focused on marketing and client relations for RIAs, family offices and endowments and foundations in the Northeast. Khalif is based in New York and reports to Alex McCulloch, managing director and head of retail distribution and marketing. Prior to joining TCW, Khalif was a partner and executive director at Hatteras Funds, concentrating on business development for liquid alternative products as well as client relations with RIAs and investment consultants. Before Hatteras Funds, Khalif was an executive director within JP Morgan Asset Management’s institutional advisor business. He has also held senior sales and marketing roles at Deutsche Asset Management, Miller Anderson & Sherrerd (a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley) and SEI Corporation.
Gregory Blake joined WMS Partners, a wealth management firm in Towson, MD, as a senior client advisor and director of client development. He was latterly a director at Convergent Wealth Advisors in Washington, DC. Blake advises wealthy families on investment planning and strategy issues including trusts, estates, foundations and endowments. He also collaborates with clients' tax and legal advisors on matters including estate planning, philanthropy, concentrated stock positions and the sale of privately-held businesses.
Federal Street Advisors, an independent investment consultant and wealth management firm, brought in Molly Betournay as an environmental, social and governance research analyst, based in Boston, MA. Betournay was latterly head of US research at the ESG research specialist EIRIS.
The Rena Group, a New York-based multi-family office and private asset management group, changed its name to New Amsterdam Group and made a number of appointments. Kevin Heaton was named as a partner of the firm while Laurence Norton and Ric Saalwachter were added to the firm's board of advisors. Additionally, Sean Mulrenan joined as a senior analyst. Heaton will focus on real estate asset management, having started his career in 1996 as a wealth management advisor at Merrill Lynch. In 2004 he joined Bucephale Asset Management, a Swiss-based $250 million hedge fund of funds, where he developed its US presence. He left Bucephale to become CFO of Standard Services Corporation, a home services investment company based in Aiken, SC.
For the past six years, Norton was a managing director at Berwind Private Equity, a Massachusetts-based family office and private equity firm. Before that he was president of Prudential Securities International as well as president of Prudential Financial's futures division. For the 20 years prior, he held management positions in Boston, MA, San Francisco, CA, and Greenwich, CT, at Shearson Lehman Bros. Meanwhile, Saalwachter had a long investment banking career in New York before moving to Houston in 1998 to develop energy banking groups at Sanders Morris Group, Canaccord and PrinceRidge Group. Before that, he worked in investment banking at Shearson Lehman, having spent the first ten years of his career at Warburg Paribas Becker. Lastly, Mulrenan was previously an analyst at Mount Kellett Capital Management and before that worked at Interactive Brokers.
Carla Knobloch, chief investment officer of The Brown Foundation, joined Houston Trust Company's investment advisory committee. Knobloch was previously general partner and founder of The Owner’s Fund, a Houston-based investment partnership. Before that, she was an officer of First Wachovia Investment Management in Atlanta, GA, and Chemical Bank in New York.
IRESS, a supplier of financial markets, wealth and mortgage management systems, appointed Michael Lynds as head of product and business solutions for Canada. Reporting to Glenn Wilson, managing director and regional head (Canada), Lynds will also develop the firm's wealth management presence in the region. He joined IRESS from Richardson GMP, where he was head of the national wealth management group.
The independent broker-dealer Raymond James Financial Services recruited two new advisor teams from LPL Financial in Green Brook, NJ. Financial advisors Dan Foran, John Foran and Jessica Foran operate as The Foran Financial Group while Brian Sweatt and Mark Walters operate as Sweatt & Walters, Insurance & Investment Advisors. The five of them collectively managed nearly $200 million in client assets at their former firm, LPL. While they function as two independent firms, they share many resources and clients. Sweatt & Walters is a satellite office of the Foran Financial Group branch - both are located at The Green Brook Office Park and offer securities through RJFS.
