People Moves
Summary Of Industry Moves In The Americas: July 2015

Here is a summary of all the comings and goings in the industry covered by Family Wealth Report during the month of July 2015.
CAIS, a financial product platform for wealth managers, brought in Frederick Kauber as managing director and chief technology officer - a new role at the firm.
Kauber will focus on improving advisor engagement, product access and execution, as well as integration with partners within the wealth management community.
He will also serve as a member of the firm's executive committee and report to CAIS’ founder and chief executive, Matt Brown.
Throughout his career, Kauber has worked at Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Dun & Bradstreet and First Data Corp, as well as entrepreneurial e-commerce and FinTech ventures including Tranzact, Bigfoot Interactive, Solid Group and Entitle Direct.
LJ Group, an international multi-family office, named Rodrigo Mendes as a private client director within the group’s trust and fiduciary division. He will focus on raising the group’s profile within the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America markets.
Mendes is based in the group’s headquarters in London and has worked for more than ten years in the corporate and fiduciary services industry. Prior to working for LJ Group he was a business development director at United International Group’s London office.
BlackRock elected Gordon Nixon, former president, chief executive and director of Royal Bank of Canada, to its board of directors.
Nixon, who retired from RBC in August 2014 (and was succeeded by Dave McKay), will join the board on October 6 as an independent director.
He started his career in 1979 when he joined Toronto-based Dominion Securities. In 1986 was promoted to run Dominion’s Japanese operations and when Dominion was acquired by RBC he then returned to Toronto.
In 1999 he was promoted to CEO of RBC Capital Markets – a position he held until his 2001 appointment as president and CEO of RBC.
US Bank appointed Robert Zellers as a senior portfolio manager and Emily Litznerski as a trust officer in Madison, WI.
Zellers was previously a portfolio manager at BMO Private Bank and its predecessor organizations for 30 years. Meanwhile, Foster was an associate in trusts and estates for Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek SC in Madison, and a contract attorney for the private wealth group of Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg in Chicago, IL.
Wilmington Trust hired Mark Fitzgerald as a senior private banker in south-central Pennsylvania, where he will coordinate deposit and lending services in Lancaster, York and Hanover.
Fitzgerald will work with high net worth clients including individuals, families, business owners and executives. He was previously a middle market relationship manager at Citizens Bank and before that a middle market relationship manager at M&T Bank, the parent company of Wilmington Trust.
Merrill Lynch hired three financial advisors: David Munoz in White Plains, NY, from UBS, and Jason Hutton and Steven Gottlieb in NYC, from Barclays.
At UBS – which he joined in 2008 – Munoz produced $2 million in annual revenue. At Merrill Lynch, he now reports to Matt Grossman, managing director of the White Plains-Greenwich, CT, market.
Hutton and Gottlieb report to managing director Joseph Doonan and serve UHNW clients. They managed around $520 million at Barclays and for nearly two decades have focused on Master Limited Partnerships.
Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch’s private banking and investment group also recruited two private wealth advisors from Barclays.
Jim Ertmann and Ben Foster formed The Ertmann – Foster Group in 2008 and are based in Chicago, IL, serving UHNW clients throughout the Midwest as well as across the US.
The team managed over $800 million in client assets at their former form, representing $5.8 million in production. They now report to PBIG mid-America regional managing director, Brett Thelander.
WE Family Offices hired an international private wealth executive in the shape of Manuel Diaz, who will be based in Miami, FL, and serve families from the US and Latin America.
Diaz started his career as an assistant professor of Latin American studies and then spent 30 years in international private banking at Republic International Bank of New York, where he was president and CEO. He continued as president of HSBC Private Banking Latin America (HSBC bought Republic in 1999) before joining Safra Bank.
New York City-headquartered Snowden Lane Partners, the wealth advisory firm, hired a pair of advisors – Alex Bryer and Keith Mayo – from Merrill Lynch.
The Mayo-Bryer Group is based in Snowden Lane’s new Bethesda, MD, office, along with Ryan Perraut, a private wealth advisor, and Heather Talesnick, a client relationship manager.
Bryer and Mayo both joined as partners and managing directors of the group, which oversees $240 million in client assets and serves wealthy individuals, families, corporations and philanthropic institutions.
Six former wealth management professionals at Barclays launched Summit Trail Advisors, an investment-focused firm, via Dynasty Financial Partners.
Summit Trail Advisors has over $3 billion in client assets and was founded by Jack Petersen, James Cantelupe, Peter Lee, Tom Palecek, David Romhilt and John Scarborough.
The firm has offices in New York, Chicago, IL, and San Francisco, CA.
Overall, the founding six partners have worked together for over a decade and bring experience from having worked at Barclays Wealth, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, AllianceBernstein, Morgan Stanley and Cambridge Associates.
Petersen and Romhilt will be based in NYC; Lee will be based in Chicago; Cantelupe will split his time between Chicago and New York City, and Palecek and Scarborough will be based in San Francisco.
Bob Andres, a former chief investment strategist at Envestnet, along with two partners, established a new RIA called Andres Capital Management.
The launch of the firm reunited Andres, Ted Palatucci and Fred Offenberg – all former Merrill Lynch executives and fixed income specialists. They are based in Berwyn, PA, outside of Philadelphia.
Andres Capital specializes in managing US fixed income portfolios and providing asset allocation services to institutions, RIAs and high net worth investors.
Tokyo-based Nikko Asset Management bolstered its business development team in the US by promoting Fred DeSerio to senior managing director, head of sales and co-head of the business for the Americas.
DeSerio, who is based in New York, joined Nikko Asset Management in January as head of sales in the US. He was previously a managing director at Invesco and has also worked at Segal Advisors, American International Group and Smith Barney.
DeSerio said the firm is also looking to widen its footprint in South America, where it has already broadened its institutional business.
The firm recently entered into a distribution arrangement with the Chilean investment advisory firm VolcomCapital, for example. Nikko is initially planning to make its Japanese equity and Asia ex-Japan equity strategies available in Chile.
Christen Douglas joined McDermott Will & Emery's private client group as a partner in New York.
Douglas was previously a senior associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman - also the former firm of McDermott's previous recruit, Ellen Harrison, in Washington, DC.
Douglas specializes in trust and estate planning, administration and litigation. She works with individuals and families, as well as individual and corporate fiduciaries in administering trusts and estates.
Massachusetts-based Athena Capital Advisors, an RIA, made two executive promotions. David Lynch was promoted to president of Athena while Melissa Mattison moved up to chief operating officer.
Lynch is managing partner and deputy chief investment officer, a position he will continue to hold. He joined Athena in 2004. Mattison was vice president of strategic solutions at Athena before her promotion. She joined in 2007 from Fidelity Investments.
Lynch succeeded Leonard Lewin as president. Lewin is vice
chairman and a member of the board of directors at Athena. He
will maintain a "hands-on" role as general counsel and face
clients in a senior capacity.
Financial advisor Bob Cordiak re-joined RBC Wealth Management in
Dallas, TX.
Cordiak previously worked at RBC Wealth Management for 15 years, and re-joined the firm from JP Morgan Securities, where he spent the past six years. He has worked in the industry for 29 years and has $160 million in assets and $1.6 million in production. Registered client associate, Emily Selin, joined with him.
Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking & Investment Group hired private wealth advisor Will Leven and his three-person team in Houston, TX, from UBS, where they managed $1.3 billion. Leven's team will report to regional managing director Bob Johnson and includes analysts Alora Anderson and Anthony Hoff, as well as client associate Ashlee Kegler.
The chief financial and risk officer at Bank of America since the depths of the financial crisis which threatened a run of bank failures decided to leave the firm, while BoA announced a number of other management changes.
Notably, it said that David Darnell, who oversees global wealth and investment management, plans to retire in the fourth quarter of this year. Upon Darnell’s retirement and after the company’s 2015 CCAR submission work is completed, Terry Laughlin will assume responsibilities as leader of GWIM and be appointed vice chairman.
Cantor & Webb, the Miami, FL-based international private client law firm, welcomed Mauricio Rivero to its partnership.
Rivero has over 20 years of experience in international tax, business succession planning, probate and trust litigation, US tax compliance and tax controversy work. He spent 10 years working for the IRS as a revenue agent and has worked with wealthy Latin Americans for over 20 years. Of note, Rivero has significant experience in the creation of pre-immigration plans for high net worth foreign individuals seeking to relocate to the US.
The Borgfeldt Group, led by financial advisor Nick Borgfeldt, joined Wells Fargo Advisors in South Hills, PA, from Morgan Stanley.
Borgfeldt previously managed over $176 million in client assets and has 37 years of industry experience. He reports to South Hills branch manager, Troy Baer.
Meanwhile, financial advisors Larry Pulliam and Jeff Kerrigan joined Wells Fargo Advisors in Greensboro, NC, from UBS. At UBS, they managed more than $165 million in combined client assets. They have 40 years of combined experience and report to Greensboro complex manager, William Spivey. They joined with Larry’s son, Spencer, who will attend Wells Fargo Advisors’ next-gen training program in September.
Eric Sanderson joined Bank of the West's wealth management group as head of family office and strategic planning services.
Sanderson will report to Steve Prostano, the newly-appointed head of Bank of the West's ultra high net worth business. Based in Denver, CO, Sanderson has spent around two decades advising affluent individuals, multi-generational families and family offices. He has built wealth planning practices for several prominent wealth management firms, both nationally and regionally, and ran a large single family office, Bank of the West said.
US Bank hired Daniel Wani as a managing director of trust and wealth planning at its high net worth arm, The Private Client Reserve. Wani’s office is based in Scottsdale and he serves the Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego and La Jolla, CA, areas. He was previously a senior wealth planning strategist at Wells Fargo.
Evercore Wealth Management appointed Mark McClintock in a newly-created role, as a managing director and portfolio manager in the firm’s Florida office.
He will be based in Tampa and report to Art Noderer, partner and portfolio manager at Evercore Wealth Management. McClintock joined Evercore from SunTrust Bank, where he has worked as an investment strategist and as the west Florida regional managing director for the bank’s personal asset management division.
US-based First Republic Bank, which provides services including wealth management, hired Brian Riley as an executive vice president. Riley will lead a growing team of investment professionals at First Republic Investment Management, an SEC-registered investment advisor serving individuals, family offices, companies and non-profit organizations. He will report to Robert Thornton, president of First Republic Private Wealth Management.
Chris Hyzy, chief investment officer of US Trust, took on the additional role of leading Bank of America's newly-created global wealth and investment management chief investment office, according to a memo seen by Family Wealth Report.
The move was part of a reorganization within Bank of America's global wealth and retirement solutions unit, after Ashvin Chhabra announced in June that he is stepping down as CIO of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management to run a family office.
In other changes, Patricio Diaz – previously chief operating officer of investment management and guidance – has become COO of global wealth and retirement solutions. Diaz took over this role from Stephen Hostetler, who joined BoA's global risk division as strategy, governance and data executive.
Meanwhile, head of retirement and personal wealth solutions, David Tyrie, moved to the consumer bank and was replaced by Lorna Sabbia, who spearheaded the development of Merrill Lynch One - the investment advisory platform.
Sabbia in turn was replaced by Keith Glenfield, who has worked at Merrill for 20 years and previously led the alternative investments business. Glenfield was replaced by Nancy Fahmy, formerly head of private equity origination and technical sales.
Long Beach, CA-headquartered Halbert Hargrove, a fiduciary investment management and wealth advisory firm, hired Kerry Michael Finn as a regional director in Newport Beach, CA. Prior to joining Halbert Hargrove, Michael was a managing director at Fiduciary Trust Company International, following stints at US Trust Company and AYCO/Goldman Sachs.
Former GenSpring advisors Sheila Stinson and Michael Slud joined Convergent Wealth Advisors as managing directors, in a move expanding the firm's multi-family wealth offering. Stinson will work with ultra high net worth families as well as help with Convergent's wealth education and governance efforts. Meanwhile, Slud will focus on goals-based investment strategies. Both are based in Washington, DC.
Jamie Wells was named as a director of wealth planning at Ascent Private Capital Management’s Center for Wealth Impact in Denver, CO. Wells succeeded Jenna Guenther, who was appointed as a managing director of wealth strategy at Ascent in Denver last month. In her new role, Wells will help clients identify their wealth planning needs and provide guidance in areas such as philanthropy and stewardship, family governance and wealth transfer or business succession issues.
She has six years of leadership experience in the financial services industry and previously served as associate director of wealth strategy and family office advisory at Ascent in Denver. Before joining the firm in 2012, she worked in multi-generational family wealth and business planning as an attorney and trust specialist.
Michael Brocker left GenSpring and joined Buckhead Investment Partners as a personal wealth advisor and financial planner. Brocker spent eight years at GenSpring, working on financial planning, tax and estate planning, insurance reviews, trust administration and philanthropic endeavors.
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management brought in former RBC wealth veteran Francesca Boschini as a director and international wealth planner in New York. Boschini reports to Andrew Gallivan, head of wealth planning services and custody in the Americas, and Felipe Godard, head of wealth management in Latin America.
Boschini was latterly a director and head of US and international wealth planning at Royal Bank of Canada, where she led a team of wealth planning and fiduciary specialists in New York, and provided technical assistance to RBC’s trust and wealth management offices globally. From 2007 to 2013, Boschini was a director on the board of RBC’s Delaware Trust Company and, more recently, was a member of the management team advisory council.
Antony Jenkins is leaving the post of chief executive at Barclays because non-executive directors wanted to drive forward change at a faster pace. John McFarlane, who is retiring from FirstGroup, is named executive chairman pending the recruitment of a new CEO and the change takes effect on July 17, subject to approval by the regulator.
JP Morgan is getting a new general counsel in the person of Stacey Friedman, who currently holds that post at the US-listed bank’s corporate and investment bank. She takes the helm early next year from Steve Cutler, who is to be appointed the firm’s vice chairman. The move will make Friedman, who will report to Cutler and act as his deputy for the rest of this year, one of the most senior legal figures in the global banking industry.
KPMG revealed the incoming leaders of its US firm’s audit, tax and advisory businesses, as well as new heads of operations and innovation and enterprise solutions, and other key roles.
The appointments filled positions in the leadership team formed by US chairman and chief executive, Lynne Doughtie, and deputy chairman and chief operating officer, P Scott Ozanus, who started their five-year terms on July 1.
The leaders of the firm’s three primary businesses are: Carl Carande, who succeeds Doughtie as vice chair of advisory; Jeffrey LeSage, who remains as vice chair of tax; and Scott Marcello as vice chair of audit. Laura Newinski has been named as the firm’s vice chair of operations, and Mike Nolan will become vice chair of innovation and enterprise solutions.
Meanwhile, the following will continue in their current roles: Sven Holmes as vice chair of legal, risk and regulatory; Rob Arning as vice chair of market development; and Bruce Pfau as vice chair of human resources and communications.
LLBH Private Wealth Management, an RIA which serves ultra high net worth clients, appointed Jeff Byers as an advisor in Los Angeles, CA, to help develop the firm's West Coast presence. Byers was previously a financial advisor and partner within The Drexler Group at Wells Fargo Advisors, where he and his team managed over $300 million in client assets.
CenterSquare Investment Management, an investment boutique of BNY Mellon, appointed Scott Crowe as chief investment strategist – a new role at the firm in which he reports to Todd Briddell, CEO and CIO.
Crowe will focus on CenterSquare's listed real estate and infrastructure businesses. He will also work on the firm's research and investment processes, and assist Briddell with investment risk oversight. Past roles held by
Crowe include global head of real estate at UBS Equities Research from 2000 to 2007; as a global portfolio manager at Cohen & Steers from 2007 to 2012; and most recently as a managing director and CIO of liquid alternatives at Resource Real Estate.
Steve Shilling was appointed as senior vice president of wealth and asset management at CNB Bank, based in Clearfield, PA. Shilling will lead the wealth management divisions of CNB Bank; ERIEBANK, a division of CNB Bank; and FCBank, a division of CNB Bank. He was most recently senior vice president and market manager at First Niagara Private Client Services and Huntington Wealth Advisors in northwest Pennsylvania. Before that, he held private client roles at firms including National City, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.
Robert Brown and Timothy Aubin joined Faubourg Private Wealth Advisors, an independent financial advisory firm in Metairie, LA.
Founded in March of this year, Faubourg is on LPL's broker-dealer platform and provides fee-based services through Level Four Wealth Management, an independent advisor group on LPL's RIA platform.
As of May 31, 2015, Brown and Aubin reported that - based on prior business - they served around $207 million of brokerage and fee-based advisory client assets.
They are former bank-based private client financial advisors, with 30 and seven years of experience, respectively. They joined Faubourg along with a private wealth support associate, and opened a new office in New Orleans.
Over the years, the pair have amassed a client base of local oil and gas professionals, as well as small business owners, LPL said.
Investment management giant PIMCO hired John Lane as executive vice president and global chief financial officer of its alternatives platform.
Lane will be based in Newport Beach, CA, and will report to Jay Jacobs, managing director and president of PIMCO.
He will manage a 20-person global alternatives finance team, with 20 years of sector experience. Lane was previously CFO of private equity and real estate at Apollo Global Management.
Merrill Lynch hired a new advisor team from UBS in Denver, CO.
Anthony Chevalier and Vance Whitby joined the Denver Mountain office and report to Jason Edelmann, market executive.
At their former firm, UBS, the team produced over $1.5 million in revenues and advised clients with assets of around $193 million during the past year.
In its most recent earnings release, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management reported that advisor headcount was up 187 for the quarter, bringing the total to 14,370 – the fifth consecutive quarter of advisor growth.
HighTower established its 14th West Coast practice with the addition of Murray Wealth Management in Seattle, WA.
Managing director and partner Michelle Murray leads the team, which manages $200 million in assets and specializes in investment consulting, wealth management, financial planning and retirement planning.
Murray began her career in financial services in 1989 with Shearson Lehman/Smith Barney, advancing to senior vice president status. In 1996, she moved from Los Angeles, CA, to Seattle, where she focused on wealth management for families and businesses. She next joined UBS in 2004, where she continued her practice and also worked in branch management.
New York-based Signature Bank added two private client banking teams in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Mohammed Omar Kamil was named group director and senior vice president of a three-person team in Brooklyn that previously worked at JP Morgan Chase. The other team members are Eric Shabat, associate group director and vice president, and Aviram Ohaion, a senior client associate.
The second team is led by Avraham Azuolay, group director and senior vice president, and joined from Hudson Valley Bank (which recently merged with Sterling Bancorp.) The five-person team in Manhattan includes: Ronald Sylvestri and Arlene DeBenedictis, associate group directors and vice presidents, and Jenny Panora and Wilfred Rivera, senior client associates.
Berkshire Bank added three to its private banking and wealth management team in New York.
Cindy Barford, senior vice president of private banking, joined from KeyBank Private Bank; Mary Ellen Cologero, senior vice president and senior portfolio manager, also joined from KeyBank; and Kevin Smith, vice president and wealth advisor, joined from Trustco Bank.
International Wealth Protection, which serves high net worth individuals and corporations in Latin America, hired Patricia Carral as a senior vice president.
Carral has 15 years of experience working with wealthy clients in
Latin America, having most recently served as head of private
clients at Amicorp in Miami, FL. She has also worked at HSBC
International Private Bank.
ACE Group, which is in the process of acquiring Chubb
Corporation, named Jim Fults as senior vice president and head of
product management and analytics at ACE Private Risk Services,
its high net worth personal insurance business.
Fults will be responsible for the growth of all lines of insurance offered by ACE Private Risk Services, reporting to James Williamson, division president.
Fults first joined ACE as vice president of product management for the auto and umbrella insurance areas of business, coming from Fireman’s Fund’s personal insurance business which ACE acquired on April 1, 2015.
US Trust said it has made four hires over the last month to accommodate growing demand for wealth management services in the following offices.
Anuradha Vohra joined in New York as a private client advisor. She previously worked at Citigroup as a managing director and private banker, also in New York.
Meanwhile, in Greenwhich, CT, Carolyn Westerberg also started as a private client advisor serving clients in southern Connecticut. She was formerly a financial advisor at JP Morgan Private Bank.
Marvin Blakeney joined the Fort Worth, TX, office as a market investment director, having previously worked at Clark, a family office.
And lastly, James Dyke was hired in Richmond, VA, as a private client advisor. He was previously a Lieutenant Colonel and the director of logistics training and strategic initiative group for the US Army.
US Bank promoted Liz Deziel to head of private banking in the Twin Cities and appointed Thomas Raisbeck as a trust officer at its Private Client Reserve in Minneapolis, MN.
Deziel replaced Jeff Arnold, who retired at the end of June, the bank confirmed.
In her new role, Deziel will partner with the regional president, market leaders and banking managing directors to enhance performance in loan and deposit production and revenue growth, as well as support the development of new products and services.
She has worked at the firm for ten years and will report to Margaret Paddock, Twin Cities market leader of the PCR, which is US Bank's high net worth arm. In previous roles she oversaw specialized lending, deposit services and Twin Cities team members, as well as working at the US Bank Foundation.
Meanwhile, Raisbeck will provide trust and estate services to individuals and families, and manage wealth preservation and distribution for corporations and non-profit organizations.
Previously, he was a general practice attorney with a focus on estate planning and litigation at the law firm Eckberg Lammers Briggs, Wolff, & Vierling.
Gonzalo Acevedo was appointed as a managing director of Bernstein’s Miami, FL, office – a role in which he will lead a team of advisors and be responsible for business growth in the region.
Acevedo was previously a managing director of City National Bank’s private client group and before that a regional manager at HSBC Private Bank. He has over 20 years of experience in the private banking and investment management arenas.
Veris Wealth Partners, the impact investment firm, promoted three of its wealth managers - Alison Pyott, Nicole Dolan and Lori Choi - to partner-level.
Choi joined Veris in 2010 and is based in New York City. Previously, Choi was vice president of account management at Markit and assistant vice president and portfolio manager at Bank of Hawaii Private Client Services.
Dolan started in 2008 and is based in Portsmouth, NH. Before joining Veris, Dolan was a portfolio manager and assistant vice president within Bank of Hawaii's private client asset management team.
Meanwhile, Pyott helped launch Veris' Portsmouth office in 2007, having previously been director of client and shareholder services at Citizens Advisors. Earlier, she was director of community impact at United Way of the Greater Seacoast and held client service and management roles at John Hancock Signature Services.
MarketCounsel, the US business and regulatory compliance consultancy, recruited three securities industry attorneys, bringing to eight the number of senior hires the firm has made so far this year.
Andy Wels joined as chief compliance counsel after spending years as head of legal and compliance affairs at financial services firms including Bloomberg, Cantor Fitzgerald, TD Ameritrade, Dreyfus and JP Morgan Chase. Before his private sector career, he was an enforcement attorney with the SEC and staff attorney with FINRA.
Meanwhile, Rich Chen joined MarketCounsel’s regulatory group with around 12 years of experience working at New York-based financial services-focused law firms including Arnold & Porter, Schulte Roth and K&L Gates.
Mark Simmelkjaer, who joined as business counsel, started his career within the corporate finance and securities group of the New York law firm Akin Gump and then became an investment banker before directing the legal affairs of a start-up through its sale.
New York-based Lenox Advisors hired Joshua Lieberman as a managing director to advise high net worth individuals and families, based in Chicago, IL.
Lieberman joined from Northwestern Mutual, where he was a wealth management advisor.