The first month of 2023 was a busy one for the sector in North America, with firm such as First Republic, Pitcairn, SVB Private and Argent among the companies making moves.

BNP Paribas Asset Management, part of Paris-listed BNP Paribas, appointed a new deputy head of US equities. Geoff Dailey took the role from Pamela Woo who was scheduled to retire at the end of June, 2023. Woo has worked in the sector for 30 years, including almost 20 years at BNPP AM. In Dailey’s case, he has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services and asset management industry. He has worked alongside Woo as a senior portfolio manager since 2014.

Partners Capital's co-chief investment officer Suzanne Streeter left the outsourced CIO business to work at Devonshire Investments, the family office looking after the wealth of the Johnson dynasty, founders and controllers of Fidelity Investments, the Boston-based asset management firm.

Pitcairn, the US family office business, recruited Nathan Sonnenberg as its new chief investment officer. He took over from Rick Pitcairn, who moved to a new role as the firm’s chief global strategist. Both men report to Leslie Voth, chair and chief executive.

Before joining the firm, Sonnenberg was founder of outsourced-CIO consultancy Wealth Management Consulting, LLC. Previously, he held leadership positions, including as chief investment officer at wealth management firms Fortigent, Advice Period, Glassman Wealth Services and Abbott Downing. 

Capital Group made a number of senior changes. It appointed Mike Gitlin, its head of fixed income, as its new president, CEO and chair of the group’s management committee. CEO Tim Armour is due to retire at the end of 2023 after 40 years at the firm. Rob Lovelace, vice chair and president, will step down from Capital Group’s management committee in October this year. 

Gitlin, who is based in Los Angeles, has been at Capital Group for eight years. He also oversees global trading and focuses on growing Capital's business to serve more clients across Europe and Asia. Prior to joining Capital, he was head of fixed income at T. Rowe Price. In addition, Martin Romo, an equity portfolio manager at the firm, became chairman of Capital Group and chief investment officer. He will take up that role in October 2023. Based in San Francisco, Romo manages portfolios in The Growth Fund of America and The Investment Company of America, for which he is principal investment officer. Romo has 31 years of investment experience, all with Capital Group. He began his Capital career as an equity investment analyst covering the global chemicals industry, mortgage and consumer financials, and select conglomerate companies. 

Meanwhile, Jody Jonsson became vice chair of Capital Group in October and continued as president of Capital Research Management Company and chair of the CRMC executive committee. Los Angeles-based, Jonsson is an equity portfolio manager at Capital Group, managing portfolios in The Growth Fund of America and New Perspective Fund, for which she is also principal investment officer. Jonsson has 34 years of investment experience and has been with Capital Group for 32 years. 

Ballast Rock Private Wealth, a Registered Investment Advisor with a focus on private-market investments, appointed Emily Glassman as a senior advisor. Most recently, Glassman spent seven years helping to build Artivest, an online alternative assets platform for financial advisors, backed by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and prominent entrepreneur and commentator Peter Thiel. She was head of business development at Artivest and oversaw the growth of the platform which served thousands of advisors by the time it was bought by iCapital. Glassman began her career in institutional equity derivative sales at Goldman Sachs.

Raymond James welcomed financial advisors Jeanne Eisele, Mary Gilbert and Leanne Gray to its independent advisor channel – in Linwood, New Jersey. Operating as Anchor Financial, the practice’s founding advisors are joined by client service associate Sarahjane Hehre and branch operations coordinator Bonnie Hehre. Previously, the team managed nearly $435 million in client assets at UBS Financial Services.

Alex Brown, a division of Raymond James, welcomed advisor and senior institutional consultant Christy Campbell in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, according to Robert Quick, a regional executive for Alex Brown. Campbell was formerly affiliated with Merrill Lynch, where she managed approximately $112 million in client assets. She will join the established team at Thrive Advisory Group, which consists of client advisors Will Taylor, CFP® and W Colin Walker, as well as client service associates Keaton Riddle, Foster Gaylor and Vincent LaManna. 

Raymond James welcomed investment broker Bryan Cernicek, AAMS®, to Raymond James & Associates (RJA) – the firm’s employee advisor channel – in St Louis, Missouri. Cernicek arrived from Edward Jones, where he previously managed approximately $256 million in client assets. He leads the Cernicek wealth management team, which includes senior client service associate Lisa Church. 

The firm welcomed financial advisor Kerri Willoughby to the firm’s independent advisor channel in Juneau, Alaska. Willoughby was joined at her practice, Willoughby Wealth Partners, by office manager Katherine Erickson. Willoughby was formerly affiliated with Edward Jones where she managed nearly $145 million in client assets. Prior to founding the business, Willoughby began her financial advising career in 2008 at Edward Jones. 

LGT Wealth Management US promoted Swaati Osborne to head of wealth planning. She joined LGT Wealth Management in 2019 as a wealth manager, then started working with the US business in 2021. Osborne is supported by new joiner trainee wealth planner Daniel Zeitoun. Zeitoun joined from UBS in North Carolina where he was a financial advisor for three years, advising US domestic individuals, and specializing in retirement and investment planning. The other new joiners to the business are Sean McCrory as wealth manager and Amy Hill as assistant wealth manager. McCrory joined from Morgan Stanley where he was a private wealth advisor. Previously, he was at JP Morgan for nine years where he was a private banker based in Colorado. Hill has over 10 years’ experience working in private wealth management with high net worth clients across Asia, Europe, the UK and US with Fidelity.

SVB Private, the US group, named Dave Kasouf as head of capital markets. In this newly created-role, he reports to Jane Leung. He is based in New York City. Kasouf has more than a decade of experience in private markets with Forge, First New York, and Bell Harbor Capital.

Argent Mineral Management, a subsidiary of Argent Financial Group, appointed Blake Butler as mineral manager. He focuses on mineral wealth, contract negotiation, oil and gas accounting and asset evaluation. Butler reports to David Luke, Argent Mineral Management president. He brings more than 11 years of experience to the role. Most recently he served as petroleum landman for Twin Creek Resources.

CIBC added three senior professionals to its US private wealth team: Phil J Treiber, managing director and private banker in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Nahid Aminzai, managing director, market lead and senior private banking advisor in Newport Beach, California; and Paul Hojnicki, CFA, senior vice president and relationship manager in Denver, Colorado.Treiber is a private banker with over 15 years of industry experience. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a private banker at BMO Harris. 

Aminzai, who has over 30 years of industry experience, joined as a private banking market manager. She is responsible for fostering new and existing relationships in Orange County, San Diego and Beverly Hills. Previously, Aminzai served as a senior vice president and wealth advisor in the California region at Comerica Bank. With over 20 years of industry experience as a relationship manager, Hojnicki provides tailored wealth management solutions for individuals, families, foundations and endowments. Before Comerica Bank, Hojnicki served as an investment strategist at Wells Fargo Private Bank in Denver.

Steward Partners Global Advisory named Mohan Gurupackiam as its chief information officer. Gurupackiam, who has more than 25 years' experience, took on a newly-created role. He reports to the business’s president and chief operating officer, Hy Saporta. Most recently, he was the vice president of IT at AssetMark where he was responsible for wealth management and data.

Wealthspire Advisors, the RIA, appointed Jandy Rowe to lead its client services. Prior to joining Wealthspire, Rowe worked at Wipfli Financial Advisors, where she began as a client service associate and worked her way up to chief operating officer during her career of more than 20 years.

Financial advisor Russell Smith moved his $150-million practice to the branch channel of Ameriprise Financial in Downers Grove, Illinois. Smith switched firms after two decades with Edward Jones in order to have access to more resources and products to serve his high net worth client base. Client service associate Sheila Lindsay, who has 20 years of experience in the industry, and Ameriprise complex director Jay Hubbard, support Smith’s practice.

Orion, a fintech working with financial advisors, appointed Tom McCarthy as executive vice president of sales. McCarthy has more than 20 years of industry experience, most recently in senior leadership roles at AssetMark working with both broker-dealers and registered investment advisors. 

Argent Trust Company promoted one of its team, Jesse Loyo, to senior compliance officer. Loyo, who is based in the San Antonio office, reports to chief compliance officer Amy Rhodes. Loyo joined Argent in 2012.

Summit Trail Advisors added Jonathan Lewis to the investment team as head of sustainable investing and chief portfolio strategist. Lewis, who is based in the firm’s New York headquarters, reports to David Romhilt, Summit Trail’s chief investment officer. With more than 30 years’ experience in investment management, Lewis was previously founder and president of Signatory Capital Advisors LLC, a consulting firm. 
 

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Fintech solution and service provider Arcus Partners named Saurabh Bhole as partner and chief technology officer. Bhole has more than 15 years of experience in financial services and technology, specifically Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS), is an 8x Salesforce Certified Application Architect with Financial Services Cloud certification. 

Verdence Capital Advisors appointed Nancy McColgan as director of its family office business. The unit is called Verdence/FAMILY. McColgan has more than two decades’ leadership experience in the wealth management space, most recently as senior vice president and managing director with Hawthorn, PNC Family Wealth, where she was responsible for the oversight, growth and direction of the organization in Baltimore, Washington, DC and the southeastern US. 

Rockefeller Capital Management added Ladage, Smith, Garcia Wealth Partners, formerly with UBS. The team is led by managing directors and private advisors Alex Ladage and Landon Smith. The five-person group includes senior vice president and private advisor Jorge Garcia as well as vice presidents and senior client associates Monica Vallejo and Carl Pavlich. The team reports to Michael Armondo, Central Division director.

Ladage, a graduate of West Point and a former Army Airborne Ranger, previously worked at UBS and Merrill Lynch. A graduate of the University of Mississippi, Smith previously worked in partnership with Ladage at both UBS and Merrill Lynch. Ladage and Smith are Certified Exit Planning Advisors. Garcia has over 15 years’ experience in wealth management, most recently with UBS. He is a graduate of the University of Texas, Austin and is also a Certified Exit Planning Advisor. Vallejo, who has five years of experience in various operations and service roles at UBS and Merrill Lynch, is a native of Austin. Pavlich brings more than 40 years of experience in operations and management positions at a number of firms, among them UBS and Morgan Stanley.

PGIM, the investment arm of US-listed Prudential Financial, is retiring. Following the retirement of Michael Lillard, John Vibert was named president and CEO of the $759 billion active global fixed income manager, effective January 1, 2024. Lillard, who joined Prudential in 1987, has served in various investment and leadership roles. 

Lombard Odier added former Julius Baer senior figures Rogerio Zanin and Juliana Lage to its office in in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil. Zanin is the new head of their local operations in SĂŁo Paulo and Lage coordinates the operational initiatives as chief operating officer for Brazil. Mariella Assumpção Gontijo, who led the Brazilian operation, left the firm in February to focus on personal projects. 

With almost 30 years of experience in the Brazilian financial market, Zanin joined from the Julius Baer Family Office, where he headed the commercial area and was part of the executive committee. Lage also joined from the Julius Baer Family Office, where she was a senior relationship manager. Prior to this, she worked at GPS Investimentos, where she was responsible for defining and implementing a middle office department dedicated to onboarding and settlements for ultra-high net worth individuals.

Socius, a multi-family office based in South Florida, appointed Ron Tenhagen as its chief investment officer. He is based at Socius’ new Palm Beach County office, opening in Delray Beach, Florida. Tenhagen has 19 years of experience as an institutional investor and is an expert in portfolio construction, asset allocation and alternative asset manager research. Prior to Socius, Tenhagen was director of investments at JM Family Enterprises where he was responsible for managing significant pools of capital for corporate, insurance and retirement assets. Prior to his work at JM Family Enterprises, Tenhagen worked at Wells Fargo and Wachovia, where he developed and managed model portfolios, and conducted research for the wealth advisory divisions. 

First Republic Bank appointed a four-person team led by Eric Yamin and Keith Caparelli to join its investment arm. The team is based in Florida and New York. Yamin and Caparelli were each named managing director and wealth manager of First Republic Investment Management. With more than 35 years’ wealth management sector experience, Yamin was previously an MD at Morgan Stanley. Before that, he worked in the distressed high yield department at Oppenheimer & Co where he was a real estate investment banker at Eastdil Secured. Caparelli has more than 10 years of wealth management experience. Before joining First Republic, he was a vice president and director of business strategy at Morgan Stanley. Prior to that, he was a wealth strategy associate at UBS. 

Eisner Advisory Group, the business consulting firm, admitted four new partners: Glenn Aigen, John Delalio, Rahul Mahna and Mary Rizzuti. Aigen works in the firm’s family office services practice within its private client services group. He has more than 35 years of experience servicing ultra-high net worth individuals, corporate executives and institutional clients. Delalio is in the firm’s EA outsourcing solutions group. He has more than 25 years of experience providing outsourcing services that use his background in finance, accounting, IT and operations to create internet-based services. Mahna leads the outsourced IT services team. He has more than 20 years of experience in IT technologies, software development and cybersecurity services. 

Rizzuti leads Compensation Resources, an EisnerAmper company. She has more than 20 years of experience in executive compensation, salary administration, best practices, sales compensation, and performance management. 

Nomura Corporate Research and Asset Management (NCRAM), part of Japan’s Nomura, appointed Meno Stroemer as head of emerging market corporate bond portfolio management. Stroemer, who has more than 30 years of experience working in emerging markets and credit on the buy and sell side in Europe and the US, is based in New York. 

Truist Wealth hired five new teammates in Princeton, New Jersey, who collectively oversee $500 million of assets for high net worth and ultra-HNW clients. The team members are Charles Craig, senior vice president and investment manager; Jason Apuzzio, SVP, wealth advisor; Mitchell Feingold, SVP advice and planning strategist; Louis Russo, SVP and wealth advisor; and Larissa Flom, SVP, senior Truist advisor.

Glenmede, the US wealth manager overseeing more than $40 billion in assets under management, elected Frances W Ferguson and Dr Sean X Wang to its join board of directors. Ferguson most recently served as CEO of Ferguson Advisors, a firm specializing in corporate strategy, operations innovation and data analytics solutions. Previously, she was group executive managing director and chief administrative officer-operations at BNY Mellon. She has also worked at Goldman Sachs, Accenture, and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Dr Wang, who has founded and co-founded more than a dozen high-tech companies over the last twenty years, holds more than sixty patents. In 1997, he founded B&W Tek, a photonics company, where he remained as CEO until recently. Dr Wang is also active in early-stage, high-tech venture, incubation and investment initiatives in the region. 

iCapital, a digital platform for alternative investments such as private equity and real estate, appointed senior regulation and compliance sector figure Agnes Bundy Scanlan to join its board of directors. Bundy Scanlan has worked for 30 years in regulatory risk management and compliance. Since May 2020, she has served as president of The Cambridge Group, a regulatory risk management firm that advises financial services and fintech firms. She is also a former chief regulatory and compliance officer and global chief privacy officer at TD Bank.

M&G, the international savings and investments business, made two US-based appointments to develop the firm’s equity investment and research capabilities and offer new investment strategies for clients. Jeffrey Lin and Thomas Lee joined as thematic equity investment portfolion managers. They have 32 and 25 years respectively of experience in the technology industry as well as in investing in technology-related thematic strategies.

Janney Montgomery Scott, the US wealth, capital markets and investments house, named senior sector figure John Yackel as its new wealth management chief. Yackel took over from Kevin Reed, who assumed leadership of Janney’s private client group after eight years leading the wealth business. Having worked at firms including SEI, Envestnet, Fortigent and Prudential, Yackel has 30 years of experience in financial services, wealth management, and technology, and has served in leadership roles at various platform and solution providers.