A round-up of executive moves in the North American wealth management market during April.

North America moves for April 2020

Hicks Capital Management, a US-registered investment advisor, added team members to its business in Florida and rebranded itself. Jim Beam, who joined as a financial advisor in Naples, Florida, has been working in financial services since making a career switch in 2013. Prior to that, he worked for 20 years in construction management and development. 

Another joiner was Shannon Beam, who worked for almost three decades in education, including 10 years in administration at First Baptist Academy Naples where she served as director of admissions and development. The firm is run by T D Hicks, its president; who works with partner Jason S Moore.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards named Jeanne Hamrick as director of external communications. Hamrick leads efforts to build and enhance the value proposition of CFP Board and the CFP® certification among media, industry, thought leaders and policy makers. She reports to chief operating officer Elizabeth Stewart.

Roberts & Ryan Investments, the RIA and certified Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise, appointed US Marine Corps veteran Alexander Mainero as managing director of capital markets. Mainero joined the Marine Corps during college and was stationed at the USMC headquarters in Washington, DC. He was assigned recruiting detail and became the face of the Marines. After his service in the US Marine Corps, Mainero began his financial services work at Barclays Bank, where he received formal training in credit, risk management and corporate finance. Mainero spent most of his finance career focusing on global capital markets, with 32 years of experience in the field. He holds FINRA Series 79, 7 and 63 licenses. 

LPL Financial announced that advisors Mike Ashworth, Steve Collie and Katheryn Gordon had launched Ashworth Financial Group with the support from LPL Strategic Wealth Services. Ashworth is a new affiliation model designed to support established wirehouse or employee channel-based advisors seeking independence. The team reported having served about $300 million in brokerage, advisory and retirement plan assets. They joined from Wells Fargo Advisors.

Rockland Capital, which concentrates on buying and developing energy sector firms, said one of its investment funds formed Rockland Renewable Ventures. It also hired industry veteran Ruben Fontes as its president. Fontes has been a senior executive in the renewable energy space for over 12 years, most recently as chief executive of TerraNavigator, LLC and senior vice president with Ameresco.

Northern Trust named ex-Deutsche Bank MD Alison Pain as its new chief technology officer responsible for leading planning and the direction of its enterprise technology unit in EMEA. Pain reports to chief information officer Tom South, and in London locally to Teresa Parker, president for EMEA. Pain spent 12 years leading infrastructure and applications development in EMEA for Deutsche bank and globally for Goldman Sachs. She also gained technology and program management experience at Barclays Private Bank, Land Securities Properties and NatWest group.

Raymond James brought financial advisor Bill Dendy and his team to its broker/dealer operation in Dallas. Dendy operates as Elite Financial Management and joined from LPL, where he managed more than $415 million in client assets. Six other team members joined him: operations manager Julie Chapman; client concierges and RJFS registered representatives Kibb King, John Thompson and Todd Pace; client concierge and RJFS relationship manager Eamon Devlin; and RJFS branch associate Madison Montgomery. 

LPL Financial appointed Judy Ricketts as executive vice president, operations. She is based at the firm’s Carolinas campus and reports to Dayton Semerjian, LPL chief customer care officer and managing director, service, trading, and operations.

Ricketts is joining LPL from TD Ameritrade, where she was most recently managing director, retail investor services, leading the retail contact center. (TD Ameritrade last year agreed to be acquired by Charles Schwab.) Prior to that role, Ricketts held several leadership positions at TD Ameritrade, including president and managing director, clearing, and managing director, investor services. She is a founding member of the firm’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

Callan, the investment consulting firm, appointed Andrew Maday as a senior vice president in the private equity consulting group. He focuses on private equity research, including manager and fund sourcing and due diligence, strategic planning and portfolio modeling, and servicing clients. Maday is based in the Chicago office and reports to Pete Keliuotis, executive vice president and head of alternatives consulting.

First Financial Bankshares chose James Gordon as its new chief financial officer and executive vice president. He replaced J Bruce Hildebrand, who announced that he was retiring in August this year. Gordon most recently served as chief financial officer of FB Financial Corporation, a publicly traded bank holding company, based in Nashville, Tennessee. Other banking experience includes Union Planters Corporation, National Commerce Financial Corporation and The South Financial Group.

Clearlake Capital Group, the US investment firm concentrating on technology, industrials, and consumer industries, made a number of executive promotions and new additions. Fred Ebrahemi was named chief operating officer, and Paul Huber has been promoted to principal. John Cannon joined the firm as managing director, O.P.S.® and deputy general counsel, and Jessica Mariduena joined the firm as assistant vice president, tax and accounting.

In addition, Vikram Abraham, Sean Courtney, Dilshat Erkin, and Ben Kruger were named vice presidents, and Amanda Fields-Schuler has been named vice president in Clearlake's O.P.S.® team. Also, Bryan Crowley, Myra Mazey, and Randy Souza were all promoted to vice president of finance and operations.

Cresset made five hires across its network, including a trio of advisors from JP Morgan, to bolster planning and advice teams in Chicago, San Francisco, and Florida.

Craig Abraham and Jon McCumber joined as managing directors and wealth advisors in the firm’s Chicago office. Abraham works with external practitioners on family wealth planning, including guidance on asset allocation and investment opportunities across public and private markets. McCumber provides advice on developing custom-tailored investment portfolios, the firm said yesterday.

In Chicago, Abraham joined from JP Morgan, where he was executive director and senior banker. He works with families on estate and wealth transfer, financial planning, philanthropy, and banking and credit. Another JP Morgan hire, McCumber was an executive director and investment specialist at the private bank.

On the West Coast, Alex Smith joined as managing director and wealth advisor in Cresset’s San Francisco office, where he advises on overall balance sheet, including private and public investments, credit and liquidity, and estate and charitable planning. Prior to Cresset, Smith spent more than a decade in private banking at JP Morgan in New York and San Francisco.

Sarah Simon also joined in San Francisco as a wealth strategist, with a focus on pre-sale planning, trust and estate tax planning, and alternatives strategy and due diligence. She previously served as an advisor with Coastal Bridge Advisors.

Prospera Financial Services brought in wealth advisor Rat Ryan, who is located in Overland Park, Kansas.  

Runway Growth Capital, which provides growth capital to venture and non-venture backed companies, appointed Rob Lake to head its new Life Sciences practice. Lake came from Bridge Bank, a division of New York-listed Western Alliance Bank, where he was the founder and group head of its life sciences practice. During his nearly five years with Bridge Bank, Lake was responsible for all aspects of the group including business development, maintaining asset quality, and managing the division's profit and loss account. Previously, Lake was an executive director at Oxford Finance, a privately held specialty financial services company that provides capital exclusively to life sciences and healthcare services companies worldwide. He also spent time at Silicon Valley Bank.

Harvest Partners appointed Jamie Toothman as general counsel and chief compliance officer. Toothman oversees the firm's legal and compliance matters and provides legal support for funds managed by Harvest. Prior to this role, Toothman was a senior vice president at Oaktree Capital Management, where she managed fund formation and operations, regulatory compliance and other legal matters across a variety of strategies, including private equity and credit opportunities. Toothman began her legal career at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, focusing on private and public acquisitions, capital markets and other corporate transactions.

Fiduciary Trust appointed Colleen M Bartling as vice president and investment officer. Bartling previously worked at BNY Mellon, where she was a VP and senior wealth manager. Previously, she worked at Northern Trust Company analyzing portfolio performance and asset allocation. She is also is involved in the Norfolk & Plymouth (Massachusetts) Estate and Business Planning Council. Bartling also volunteers for a collection of non-profit organizations including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, Citizen Schools, Girls on the Run as an associate board member, Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, Health Care Without Walls, and Thompson Island Outward Bound.

Red Hat, which provides enterprise open source software solutions, named Paul Cormier as its chief executive, taking over from Jim Whitehouse, who became president of IBM. Cormier had previously been Red Hat’s president of products and technologies. 

Woodmont Investment Counsel added three senior staff members to the Nashville-based investment management group. The arrivals were Joshua A Ireland (joined as chief operating officer), a nuclear engineer with experience of overseeing operations in the investment management industry and at multiple startups; Lindsay A Youngbauer (joined as a senior vice president and wealth advisor), a Certified Financial Planner with a background in financial and estate planning for high net worth individuals; and Grace S Bennett (joined as a senior vice president and wealth advisor), an experienced investment advisor who comes to Woodmont from Investure LLC in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she was an associate and analyst working with large endowments and foundations.

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Raymond James brought over advisors Mark Albright; Michael Ward; Andrew Dibble; Cole Dimond; Bob Olvera; Reisha Fregoe, and Michael Richards, in Overland Park, Kansas, to its broker/dealer business. The team operates as Caliber Wealth Management and joined from Ameriprise Financial Services, where the advisors managed more than $350 million in client assets. The advisors are joined by six team members: para-planner Brent Bloomer, client service manager Linda Daza; client relationship manager Frances Gingles; and administrative assistants Donna Hankins and Katie Manning.

Raymond James brought over advisors Deborah Juran in Monterey; David Colley and Jim Mills-Winkler in Long Beach; and Rod Smith in Newport Beach, California, to its independent broker-dealer. Juran, founder of Juran Wealth Management, has more than 40 years of financial services experience, having worked at Morgan Stanley and most recently RBC. Juran, along with financial advisor Melissa Paddock and client service manager Jocelyn Galvan joined from RBC, where the team previously managed $150 million in client assets. Colley and Mills-Winkler joined from Waddell & Reed. The two, who operated as separate practices while at Waddell & Reed, independently joined an existing Raymond James Financial Services-affiliated office, Crux Wealth Advisors, marking the practice’s third and fourth joins in the last seven months. Collectively, Colley and Mills-Winkler previously managed approximately $235 million in client assets.

Robertson Stephens Wealth Management opened its first office in the US southwest, in Austin, Texas. Financial advisor, Pam Friedman joined as managing director and principal, bringing more than $60 million in assets. Friedman has been in the financial services industry for nearly 30 years. Starting her career in New York and London at CIBC and UBS respectively, she went back to Austin to become a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also the author of the book I Now Pronounce You Financially Fit, which focuses on maintaining a healthy financial balance throughout marriage or in the case of divorce.

Investment banking boutique Q Advisors, which works with private entrepreneurs and other clients, named Dmitry Netis as managing director, business development. He has 24 years of industry experience. Most recently, Netis consulted for several public and private company clients under the practice he founded, Dmitry Netis & Company, and was the chief financial officer and chief operating officer of privately-held CafeX Communications. He was also an MD and senior equity research analyst with Stephens Inc. Prior to that, he spent over 10 years at William Blair & Company as a founding member of the technology, media and telecoms team.

Omaha, Nebraska-based Carson Group brought in a change management and leadership development figure, Dr Gerry Herbison, to join its advisor coaching business line. Dr Herbison is also the adjunct professor of leadership and practice management at The American College of Financial Services. Previously he served there as a full-time assistant professor of management studies and the leadership programs director. Prior to joining The College, Dr Herbison worked as a registered representative, investment advisor, and regional vice president for AXA. During his 10-year tenure with the company, he was honored as an elite regional vice president.

Heidrick & Struggles, the executive search group that operates in areas including wealth management, appointed Laszlo Bock to join its board of directors. He was named an independent director. Bock is a co-founder and CEO of Humu Inc, the software development firm, and former senior vice president of people operations at Google. Prior to Google, Bock served in various executive and management consulting roles at General Electric and McKinsey & Company.

Rockefeller Capital Management, the US wealth management house, appointed former First Republic Bank figure Brian Riley as head of its San Francisco office. He was also named managing director of its Pacific Northwest division for Rockefeller Private Wealth Management. Riley reports to Chris Dupuy, national field director for Rockefeller Private Wealth Management.

Glenmede, the US wealth manager overseeing almost $30 billion in assets, named Elizabeth Eldridge as the director of manager research. Based in the firm’s Philadelphia office, she reports to Peter Zuleba, director of investment management. Before this, Eldridge worked at JP Morgan Private Bank, where she was global head of equity and equity alternative manager solutions; she was also a member of its Sustainable Investing Working Group. 

Deutsche Bank Wealth Management appointed Sarah Pickens as director and relationship manager in New York. She joined the global wealth manager from BB&T in Washington, DC, where she managed large investments and outstanding credit. 

Dynamk Capital, a growth equity and venture capital firm focused on life science industrials, appointed Dr Gustavo Mahler as a general partner, recognizing his previous contributions as a venture partner. Dr Mahler, who is now more active in the fund's management including day-to-day operations and in executing the longer-term strategy, first partnered with Dynamk while at CMC Biologics/AGC Biologics.

Canada/US-listed CIBC made a raft of top-line appointments. Eric Propper, president of CIBC Private Wealth, was also named head of the Chicago office. Kishore Setty, managing director and head of the New York office, became Mid-Atlantic regional team executive. Scott Thompson, managing director and head of the Atlanta office, was named Southeast regional team executive and co-executive director of CIBC Family Office.

Chris Quinn, managing director, was appointed co-executive director of CIBC Family Office. Erin Dickes, managing director, was appointed team executive of the Dallas office.
Propper also serves on the CIBC Private Wealth US operating committee, asset allocation and multi-manager investment committees, as well as the CIBC US operating committee. Propper is a director of CIBC Delaware Trust Company and CIBC Private Wealth Advisors.

Kishore Setty, in his Mid-Atlantic role, oversees offices in Baltimore, Washington, DC and Delaware, in addition to managing the New York office. He also serves clients as a senior relationship manager, with 18 years of industry experience.

Scott Thompson, in his role as Southeast regional team executive role, oversees the offices in Texas and Florida, in addition to managing the Atlanta office. He continues to serve clients as a senior relationship manager, with over 25 years of industry experience. Thompson also serves on the firm’s trust committee, which provides fiduciary oversight in the administrtion of trusts.

Scott Thompson and Chris Quinn work together to build CIBC’s family office offering for ultra-high net worth clients. Erin Dickes, team executive at CIBC Private Wealth office in Dallas, continues to serve as a senior relationship manager with more than 20 years of experience. John Hoag was named senior vice president and senior relationship manager in New York, and Elizabeth Nichols was named managing director and senior wealth strategist in Houston.

SS&C Technologies appointed Christopher Madpak to lead SS&C GlobeOp's Tax Services Group. The group provides customized tax preparation and analytics services to investment managers including hedge, private equity, real estate and hybrid funds. Madpak focuses on strategy, innovation, product development and oversees client delivery. Before his appointment, he focused on delivering tax services to SS&C's private equity and real assets client base for more than 17 years.

Cresset appointed Patrick Canning as vice chairman. He is responsible for business development across the organization. Canning previously served as managing partner of KPMG’s Chicago office, the firm’s second-largest office, as well as the Midwest market. Before that, he was the MD of KPMG’s Boston and Providence offices, Cresset said in a statement yesterday. 

S&P Global named Dan Draper as chief executive of S&P Dow Jones Indices. He replaced Alexander Matturri who is retiring after 13 years of leading the index business. Draper, who reports to Douglas Peterson, president and CEO of S&P Global, is based at S&P Global's world headquarters in New York City. Prior to this, Draper worked at Invesco Distributors., where he served as its managing director and global head of exchange traded funds. Before that, he worked in asset management, wealth management, and investment banking in Chicago, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, and New York during his 27-year career.

Sheaff Brock Institutional Group appointed David King as vice president of institutional distribution. He works with broker-dealers, RIAs, banks, wealth managers and consultants. Prior to this, King was national director of intermediary sales at Forester's Financial in New York, where he built the wholesaling force and support staff for placement of First Investors Funds within institutional investment firms. He previously held VP positions at AIG Financial Distributors, Jackson National Life, Genworth Financial, and Allianz Life Financial Services.

Compliance Risk Concepts, a professional services organization, named Steve Brown as director of broker-dealer client services. Brown brought 25-plus years of industry and regulatory compliance experience to the role. For the past nine years, Brown served as senior director within PwC's risk and regulatory practice focused on advising global financial institutions. 

Elk River Wealth Management appointed wealth management luminary Howard T Alexander as chairman emeritus. 

Envestnet, the New York-listed wealth management systems firm whose chief executive and president Judson Bergman died with his wife in an automobile accident last year, announced a new C-suite leadership. William Crager was named as the new CEO; Stuart DePina has been announced as president, while James Fox was named as chairman and has also been appointed as chairman of the board of directors. Charles Roame was appointed as vice chairman of the board.
 
Crager, a co-founder of the company and president since 2002, had served as interim CEO following Bergman’s death in early October 2019. Crager was named chief executive of Envestnet Wealth Solutions in January 2019.

DePina, who has served as CEO of Envestnet Data and Analytics since January 2019, was previously president of Tamarac, a company Envestnet acquired in 2012.

Fox, who had served as a board member since 2015, was previously chairman, CEO and president of FundQuest, a company Envestnet acquired in 2011. Roame, who served as a board member since 2011, is managing partner of Tiburon Strategic Advisors, a provider of research, strategy consulting and other related services primarily focused on financial services firms.

Dynasty Financial Partners appointed Harris Baltch as head of Dynasty Capital Strategies. Baltch is responsible for customizing, underwriting and implementing capital solutions for clients of the firm. Prior to joining Dynasty, he spent nearly a decade at UBS Investment Bank where he was an executive director in its financial institutions group. Earlier in his career, Baltch worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the banking and capital markets group. He has more than 15 years of financial services experience and earned his MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He also received a BS in accounting at Binghamton University and is a certified public accountant, registered in the State of New York. 

Fiduciary Trust International appointed Lisette Cooper, PhD, to join its board of directors. The other directors voted unanimously to appoint Dr Cooper, who became vice chairman of Fiduciary Trust International following the company’s acquisition of Athena Capital Advisors in March 2020. She founded Lincoln, Massachusetts-based Athena Capital in 1993 and served as its managing partner and chief investment officer.