People Moves
Summary Of Senior Moves In North America's Wealth Sector – August 2023
While not an intense month for appointments given the vacation season, a number of prominent appointments were made during August.
CIBC announced a series of new hires for its wealth management business.
They included Edward Kelly CPWA®, AIF®, BFA™, as managing director and business development officer in CIBC Private Wealth’s New York office. Kelly is a business development officer with 30 years of industry experience. Previously, he served as an executive vice president of wealth management sales at Orion Portfolio Services where he was responsible for overseeing sales and distribution.
Other senior hires included Martha Lufkin as senior vice president and fiduciary advisor based in Boston, Massachusetts. Previously, Lufkin was a managing counsel for wealth management at BNY Mellon, National Association.
In addition, CIBC hired Tanya Kulberg as managing director and market manager in San Francisco, California, bringing more than 25 years of wealth management experience to CIBC Private Wealth. Prior to joining the firm, she served as a senior private banker at California Bank & Trust Private Bank, where she specialized in deposit, credit and investment solutions tailored to high net worth individuals and their families.
Finally, CIBC appointed Keri Pankow as senior vice president and senior wealth strategist in CIBC Private Wealth’s San Francisco office. Pankow has over five years of industry experience. Before joining the firm, she was an attorney at Plageman, Lund & Cannon where she practiced in the areas of estate planning, trust and estate administration, and taxation.
Raymond James:
-- The firm brought in a team of 16 financial advisors and 23 branch professionals at Summit Financial Group. The team, based in San Ramon, California, is joined its independent advisor channel. Before making the switch, the Summit team worked with Securian Financial Services where it ran more than $2.6 billion in client assets. The team includes Nathan Bennett, Steven Wilcox, Don Ledoux, Jay Gilson, Vanessa Savage, Gina Morais, Brendan Noonan, John O’Dea, Aaron Peabody, Michael Schomaker, Cody Smith, Jeneen Slack, Connor Merrigan, Kim Damiani, Dash Grammer, and Robert Avey.
-- It welcomed financial advisor Burdette Park to its employee advisor channel. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Park previously spent more than 13 years as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch where he managed about $300 million in client assets at Merrill Lynch. He was joined by senior sales associate Heather Jones.
-- Raymond James brought in financial advisors Ali Rustempasic, Yamen Fellah and Wyatt McRae to the firm’s independent advisor channel. The advisors joined the team at SilverTree Wealth Partners, establishing a new office in Tucson, Arizona. They were previously affiliated with Edward Jones where they managed more than $250 million in client assets.
-- The firm also welcomed financial advisor Joshua Rogers to its employee advisor channel in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Previously managing approximately $360 million in client assets at Merrill Lynch, Rogers leads Rogers Wealth Management of Raymond James and was joined by client service associate Kristen Stoinoff. Together, the team provides wealth management guidance to clients such as business owners, families and individuals living in and preparing for retirement. They operate as part of RJA's Ponte Vedra Complex, led by complex manager Tom Isaacs.
Westmount Asset Management, a Los Angeles-based, independent investment advisory firm with more than $5 billion in assets under management, named senior advisor Denis Massey as a partner. Massey joined Westmount as a senior advisor in 2016.
Baird appointed Greg Aiken, Ben Blake and Jonathon Bult to join its office in Salt Lake City, Utah. Aiken and Blake serve as a director and financial advisor; Bult serves as a vice president and financial advisor. They joined Baird from Zions Wealth Advisors where they collectively oversaw more than $500 million in assets under management.
Aiken, who has 21 years of industry experience to Baird, holds a Certified Wealth Strategist designation. Blake has 18 years of industry experience and an executive MBA from the University of Utah. Bult has close to a decade of industry experience, and an MBA from Utah State University.
Helios, a US financial services solutions business, appointed Lena Arai, PhD and Caleb Findell as senior research analysts. Both report to Jason Van Thiel, recently promoted to managing director of product. Arai joined from Phillips, Fractor & Company. Previously, she served as a data analyst/research associate at Claremont Graduate University's Center for Neuroeconomics Studies while completing her PhD in economics and information systems and technology. Findell, who worked at UBS and Ameriprise, most recently served as an investment analyst at Gradient Financial Group.
Opto Investments, a tech solution for advisors trying to gain access into private markets, appointed Matt Dunn as head of marketing. Prior to this, Dunn was executive vice president (EVP) and head of Americas marketing at PIMCO. He previously worked at Morgan Stanley, helping to drive the lender's AI-driven “Next Best Action” product. He also worked in Canada and the US at Franklin Templeton Investments.
F2 Strategy, the wealth management technology services company, appointed Laura Korbel as president. She joined from IT consultancy Rightpoint.
Perch Wealth, the US investment firm focused on tax mitigation strategies for high net worth clients, transitioned to Arkadios Capital, a hybrid broker-dealer. Founders and managing partners Ben Carmona and Ehud Gersten were previously with Emerson Equity.
Vestwell, the employer and individual savings platform, appointed former Goldman Sachs senior figure Dumbrill Early as chief strategy officer. Early reports to Aaron Schumm, Vestwell’s founder and CEO. Previously, Early was the chief strategy officer and chief of staff at Securitize, a blockchain-based platform for alternative assets.
S2 Capital, a residential investment manager, hired Mark Halford as vice president, special situations. Halford works with the S2 investments team to focus on opportunistic and distressed acquisitions through the firm’s commingled fund vehicles. Halford spent a decade with Lone Star Funds, where he participated in over $10 billion of distressed and opportunistic investing, including the takeover of the failed Anglo-Irish Bank that took place in 2011.
StraightLine Group, an independent SEC Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) and financial planning firm, appointed industry veteran Rob Rickey, CFP® as chief growth officer. Rickey has more than 25 years of experience in the retirement industry, most recently working as managing director and head of advisor services at TIAA.
Cresset hired Bradley Schneider as managing director, head of private credit, to lead the team within the firm’s broader private funds group. Schneider, who most recently was head of private credit with Midwest Holding, brings more than 20 years of experience focused on private and alternative credit investing. Previously, Schneider was a partner at Sound Point Capital, where he served in various leadership and investment functions across numerous credit funds. Before Sound Point, he was a senior credit analyst at Apollo Management.
Principal Asset Management appointed Michael Goosay as managing director of global fixed income and portfolio manager on select strategies. Goosay has more than 25 years of investment industry experience. He previously spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as head of global pensions and multi-sector fixed income portfolio management.
Argent Trust Company appointed Margaret Velasquez as business development officer in the San Antonio, Texas market. Velasquez reports directly to chief investment strategist Tom Stringfellow. She has worked in the financial services industry for 35 years.
Guggenheim Securities, the investment banking and capital markets division of Guggenheim Partners, appointed Tim Murphy and Alex Kozak as a senior managing director, and managing director, respectively. They are based in the firm’s New York office.
Oregon-based Oswego Crest Financial Group joined up with Steward Partners Global Advisory. Oswego is based in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and was formerly affiliated with Commonwealth Financial. The four-person team is made up of partners and wealth managers Patricia Sturr, Peter Miller, and Tom Daniels, as well as partner, client administrative manager Peggy Maxwell.
Wealth.com, a US estate planning platform, named Tyrone Ross, chief executive officer and co-founder of Turnqey Labs, and president and founder of 401 Financial, as its inaugural strategic advisor.