October saw top-level changes at Wells Fargo and a raft of moves at firms such as Royal Bank of Canada.

The most prominent move of October unquestionably took place at Wells Fargo. John Stumpf stepped down from his position as chairman and chief executive the bank sought to rebuild its reputation in the wake of a scandal surrounding its sales practices. It appointed Tim Sloan, president and chief operating officer, to succeed him as CEO, and Stephen Sanger, lead director, as non-executive chairman of the board, while independent director Elizabeth Duke serves as vice chair. 

In September, US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Wells Fargo a record $185 million over the opening of two million accounts without customers' permission. The lender then announced that Stumpf, who was paid $19.3 million last year, would forfeit his salary during investigations of the misconduct, which was carried out by low-level staff to meet internal sales targets. Stumpf, a 34-year veteran of the bank, became Wells Fargo’s CEO in 2007. Sloan, who joined Wells Fargo 29 years ago, became president and COO in November last year, when he assumed leadership over the bank’s four main business groups: community banking, consumer lending, wealth and investment management, and wholesale banking.

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management appointed Karin Kimbrough as head of investment strategy within its global wealth and investment management chief investment office. Kimbrough previously served as a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s markets group, where she founded and led the financial stability function. During her time at the Federal Reserve, she also managed the foreign exchange trading staff and the quantitative analytics team, and wrote reports on trends in asset valuation, financial innovation, leverage and financial conditions. Kimbrough also worked for Morgan Stanley and the World Bank.

Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management appointed Brian Katz as managing director of its Boston office. Katz has more than 30 years’ financial industry experience, with 28 of these spent in a senior leadership role at US-based Morgan Stanley and its predecessor companies. He also spent 12 years as managing director and regional director at both Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley and led significant portions of their wealth management businesses. Most recently, he was divisional vice president of branch development for Ameriprise Financial Inc, where he directed the firm’s advisor recruitment process across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

RBC also appointed Rod Bolger as its new chief financial officer, replacing Janice Fukakusa, leaving the firm after a 31-year career with the firm.

Bolger was previously executive vice president of finance and controller and joined RBC in 2011 following a succession of previous roles at the Bank of America and Citigroup. Prior to that, he spent over a decade with PricewaterhouseCoopers in both the US and UK.

Connecticut-based Fieldpoint Private appointed Richard Land from Citi as its managing director and senior advisor. Land joined the firm following a 12-year stint with Citigroup, where he worked with families and entrepreneurs at Citi Private Bank in Greenwich and Westport, Connecticut. Previously, he worked as a business banking officer, collaborating with companies on commercial lending, insurance and cash management.

RBC Wealth Management appointed Thomas Pink as a financial advisor within its Stillwater, Minnesota office. In his previous position, Pink held the role of senior vice president and investment officer at the Pink Wealth Management group of Wells Fargo Advisors. In addition, Tyanna Graner, a registered client associate, joined the Stillwater office.

RBC Wealth Management named Tom Schulenberg as director of the Minneapolis complex. He has responsibility for four branches and more than 100 financial advisors and took over from Wally Chapman, who was recently promoted to director of the central division. Schulenberg has 23 years of industry experience and joined RBC Wealth Management in 2005 as director of the Wayzata branch. Last year Schulenberg was named director of RBC Wealth Management’s Edina office when Chapman left that role to become the Minneapolis complex director.

Private Client Resources, a wealth data aggregator business working with private banks, registered investment advisors and family offices, hired Rob Neville as its new chief technology officer. Neville was formerly director of engineering and head of exchange technology at itBit and he led a team of more than 20 technologists. Neville has a long history of software development and technology management in financial services delivering solutions to the financial services industry.

Dublin-based KBI Global Investors appointed William Lynch as senior vice president of its North American business development team. Previously, Lynch held the position of partner and head of marketing and client service at New York-headquartered investment management firm New Amsterdam Partners, with earlier spells spent at Avatar Associates and Prudential Securities. In his new role, Lynch based in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Baird added a team of financial advisors to a new satellite wealth management office in Stuart, Florida. “The Cohen and Clinton Group”, comprised of Jeff Cohen, managing director and financial advisor, and Christian Clinton, senior vice president and financial advisor, is a wealth management group of Wells Fargo Advisors. Before joining Wells Fargo in 1995, Cohen was vice president of an apparel company for five years. He brings 21 years of industry experience, while Clinton has 16 years’ expertise, 14 of which were spent at Wells Fargo. The duo were also joined by client specialist Jena Burrows and client assistant Paula McClughen.

WealthVest appointed Chris DeMale as a regional consultant for Illinois and Wisconsin. DeMale joined from Bluerock Capital Markets where he was a senior vice president. He also worked at Morningstar, John Hancock, Calamos Investments and Deutsche Bank. 

Chicago-headquartered Family Office Exchange appointed Peter Roach as its market leader for Australia and New Zealand. Roach took over from Melissa James, who continued as co-facilitator of the FOX family enterprise council meetings. 

US Trust appointed a total of seven individuals across the US. In California, it appointed Dwight Edwards has joined the San Francisco office as a senior trust officer. He previously worked at City National Bank, holding the same role. Rodolfo Pardo joined the Los Angeles, also as a senior trust officer; he previously held the same role at Reliance Trust Company.

Roseann DeRosa also joined the Los Angeles office, holding the role of estate settlement market director; she previously worked at the Law Office of Roseann DeRosa as a trust and estate attorney.
In Illinois, Michael Fantasia joined the Chicago office as a private client advisor. He previously worked at JP Morgan as an associate banker.

In Missouri, Michael Heaney joined the Saint Louis, office as a private client advisor. He previously worked at The Private Bank as a managing director.

Over in New Jersey, US Trust appointed Timothy Cooney to its Florham Park office as a private client advisor. He previously worked at JP Morgan as an executive director.

In Texas, it appointed Charmaine Tang has joined the Dallas as a market philanthropic executive covering the central and west regions. She previously worked at March of Dimes as an executive director.

Diversified Trust appointed Meg Crosby to its board of directors. Crosby is the founder and principal of PeopleCap Advisors, which advises companies on human capital and organizational strategies. Previously, she was lead HR executive at Google, having joined the company as its first HR generalist. There, she led a team that was responsible for the integration of 35 acquisitions across four continents.

Family Office Exchange appointed Vincent Hayes as a new director of member development, signalling a further drive to add to its numbers. Existing FOX sales team members will remain and will be under Hayes’ management in its Chicago HQ. Hayes has had 15 years of experience in the investment world, most recently with AGN Futures, where he served as vice president of sales and operations since 2011.

Former Neuberger Berman executives Matthew Rubin and Justin Gaines launched Matrix Wealth Partners, a multi-family office in New York City. The pair previously worked at Neuberger Berman’s investment strategy group. Rubin was a managing director at Neuberger Berman, chief investment officer at Neuberger's trust company and chairman of the firm's asset allocation committee. He has also worked at US Trust and Morgan Stanley.

Strands, based in Miami, Florida, hired Oscar Sala joins as head of product strategy. Sala joined after 16 years with Spain’s CaixaBank in various digital transformation roles. In recent years, he has focused on innovation in digital banking and advances in customer-centric online services.

HighTower signed its 10th team for 2016, The Thrush Group, a Westport, Connecticut-based advisory practice managing $250 million in assets. The team at The Thrush Group, led by managing directors William Thrush and Meghan Rump, formerly worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. They specialize in financial strategies for private business owners and their families.

Northern Trust Asset Management appointed Emily Lawrence as an environmental, social and governance (ESG) senior product specialist. Lawrence joined from MSCI in Boston, where she was head of screening and research operations. In that role, she led teams responsible for collecting and analyzing data for negative screening, impact screening and custom research products.

Vanguard appointed its Japan head, David Cermak, to lead its Asia business and replaced Shelly Painter who moved to an internal role in the US. Cermak, who joined Vanguard in 2005 as head of its US brokerage unit, was head of Vanguard Japan since 2013. As head of Asia, he continues to report to Jim Norris, managing director for Vanguard International, and will be based in Hong Kong. 

Meanwhile, Charles Lin, who has helped drive the firm’s China distribution strategy over the past five years, assumed the new role of head of China. He joined the international leadership team, which oversees all of Vanguard’s non-US operations, and reports to Jim Norris. Painter, regional managing director for Vanguard Asia, returned to the US to lead the firm’s enterprise risk management function after five years in Asia. She reports to Chris McIsaac, managing director, planning and development.

Capital One Investing recruited six new financial advisors in Wilmington, Delaware, and four in New York. All were newly-created roles. In Wilmington, Charles Fryling joined from Vanguard where he was an investment analyst and high net worth relationship manager. Jay Popky was previously a project manager and financial advisor at Vanguard since 2000. Before that, he worked at Towers Perrin, Meridian Asset Management and Coopers & Lybrand.

Patrick Rogan also joined from Vanguard where he was a financial advisor on the HNW client relationships team. Michael McLaughlin joined from Wealth Financial Advisory Services, having previously spent 23 years with Vanguard developing and leading advisory service units within the company.  Vincent Maimone joined from The Philadelphia Wealth Management Company, where he was partner. Previously, he was a financial planner for AXA Advisors.

David Quynn was appointed to the Wilmington-based advisor team. He was previously a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Before that, he served as a trust officer at UBS Wealth Management and a senior portfolio administrator at BNY Mellon.

Meanwhile, in New York, Ryan Cleary joined from Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, where he advised HNW clients. Scott Jenkins also joined the New York team from Merrill Lynch, where he was a financial advisor in the firm’s wealth management division.

John Delamater was recruited from Morgan Stanley, where he spent 15 years in financial advisor and management roles in New York City and Southern California. Finally, Gregory Brown, recently joined from Transamerica Financial Advisors, bringing more than 25 years of experience at firms including MetLife Securities.
 
Cornerstone Advisors launched an international practice under the leadership of new hire Frances Mickelson. Mickelson, based in Denver, Colorado, joined the firm’s wealth transfer and business succession advisory team. As a legacy and insurance strategy advisor, she served the affluent market for almost 15 years.