A roundup of the moves and appointments in the North American wealth management sector during May.

Raymond James welcomed financial advisors Jay Palmer and Bobby Miller to its independent advisor channel in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The advisors, who operate as Lantern Wealth Management, were previously affiliated with Merrill Lynch where they managed about $120 million in client assets.

Palmer, who is a Certified Financial Planner, previously worked as an advisor at Merrill Lynch from 2018. With over 10 years of industry experience, Miller obtained certifications as both a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor^SM and a Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor. Previously a senior financial advisor and vice president at Merrill Lynch, he earned his bachelor’s degree in business management from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The firm welcomed financial advisor Kevin Cooper to its employee advisor channel. Cooper, who is based in Boca Raton, heads Cooper Family Office Consulting of Raymond James, which specializes in intergenerational wealth management. He was joined by senior registered client service associate Jean Panarello. Cooper, senior vice president, wealth management, has been in the financial services industry for nearly 30 years. He served as a financial advisor with several firms before spending 10 years at Merrill Lynch. In 2005, Cooper transitioned to UBS Financial and Morgan Stanley in 2013.

Raymond James welcomed former Merrill Lynch financial advisors Steve Harman, Mark DeGon and Jake Phillips to its employee advisor channel in Spokane, Washington. At Merrill Lynch, the advisors managed approximately $409 million in client assets. Together, they operate as Panorama Wealth Management of Raymond James and work alongside client service associates Jennifer Jones and Kaitlyn Harman.

Raymond James appointed advisor Dave Sprenkle to join its independent advisor channel in York, Pennsylvania. Operating as Sprenkle Wealth Management, Sprenkle was joined by senior client service manager Theresa Lehigh. They were previously affiliated with Janney Montgomery Scott and managed over $140 million in client assets.

The firm welcomed financial advisor Rob Hrnicek to its independent advisor channel. Hrnicek joined the Plano, Texas team of advisors at Parkway Wealth Management Group. Previously, Hrnicek was affiliated with Wells Fargo where he managed approximately $125 million in client assets. With more than two decades’ financial sector experience, he started his career at Merrill Lynch in 2001. 

The chief economist of Raymond James, Scott J Brown, PhD, left the firm after having told the firm late last year that he intended to retire. Dr Brown, who joined the firm in 1993, has advised clients with his analysis and thought leadership on economic affairs for more than 28 years. The Florida-based group appointed Eugenio Alemán, PhD, as Dr Brown’s successor. He joined from the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration where he was also chief economist. Prior to the EIA, Dr Alemán was with Wells Fargo for 16 years, first as a director and senior economist for Wells Fargo Securities, where he covered the US domestic consumer profile, contributed to the analysis of the global economy, and researched the commodities, energy and metals' markets. 

PNC Financial Services, the US lender that provides offerings including private banking, said its chief customer officer and retail banking head was retiring. Karen Larrimer stood down after 27 years of working at the bank. Larrimer, who is remaining as the bank's chief customer officer through 2022, has led retail banking since July 2016, after being appointed as chief customer officer in 2014.. Alex Overstrom, PNC's head of small business and deputy head of retail banking, assumed responsibility for leading PNC's retail banking line of business.

Deutsche Bank appointed Elom Kpordze and Bhavin Thakore as managing director and director, respectively, within the international private bank for the Americas. They are based in San Francisco and report to Chris Ainsworth, head of West Coast, international private bank, Americas.

Kpordze was formerly a member of the global banking team at Citigroup, where he also led business development on the West Coast for Citi Private Bank’s employee stock ownership plan lending initiative. Thakore joined from Citi Private Bank where he was a senior vice president and worked with high net worth individuals. He focused on converting a pipeline of prospects into target market clients. Previously, he managed a CitiGold office, as well as offices for US Bank and Wells Fargo Bank.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management made four hires in its New York Tri-State region. It appointed Wing Wilson as regional fiduciary manager, Leighton Cameron as senior wealth manager, Marcy Morgan as principal, private banking and Scott Rickman as client strategist. Wilson, Cameron and Morgan are based in New York City, and Rickman is based in Greenwich, Connecticut. They all report to John Ippolito, regional president, New York Tri-State.

Synovus Bank, based in Columbus, Georgia, named Katherine Dunlevie as president and chief executive of The Family Office at Synovus. Dunlevie has spent her entire financial services career with Synovus, joining the bank as a management associate in 2002. In 2004, she moved to The Family Office, previously known as Synovus Family Asset Management, and served as an advisor until she was named managing director in 2014. In February this year, Synovus changed Dunlevie’s title to president and CEO.

Richard Skae, vice chairman of Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management Group, died at the age of 65. Skae joined Morgan Stanley in 2006 and had been the vice chair since 2017, following a revamp of the firm’s wealth management structure. Before that, he headed the Eastern division for wealth management, overseeing the advisors in one of two large divisions.

Heritage Trust, a subsidiary of Argent Financial Group, appointed Brooke Henderson as vice president, relationship manager. Henderson is responsible for assisting clients in a variety of areas, including trusts, probate and estate planning and administration. She reports to Michael Romero, president. Henderson previously served as an associate attorney at Berman & Rabin, P.A., where she focused on consumer debt collection.

Rockefeller Capital Management added the Puget Sound Group to its business, building its presence in the Pacific Northwest. The team of five includes: Nick Paget, managing director, and private wealth advisor; Nicole Schafer, senior vice president, PWA; Forrest St. John Kim, VP and PWA; Karen Henderson, AVP and team operations manager; and Tor Fanning, AVP and financial planning analyst. 

Robertson Stephens Wealth Management appointed D Ellen Shuman as a director. Shuman has nearly 40 years of industry experience. Shuman, who is a partner emerita and co-founder of Edgehill Endowment Partners, an outsourced chief investment office, was previously chief investment officer of Carnegie Corporation of New York and director of investments at the Yale University Investments Office. 

Fiduciary Trust International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Franklin Templeton, appointed M Lisa Parry Howard as trust counsel based in its Delaware office.

Howard has more than 20 years of financial services and wealth management experience, focusing on trust account administration, fiduciary legal matters, risk assessment, trust account and corporate governance, and account compliance. She joined from the Wilmington Trust arm of M&T Bank, where she served as a trust administration contract attorney, fiduciary administrator, and risk and corporate governance analyst. Earlier in her career, Howard was a trust compliance advisor for fiduciary and Delaware-directed accounts at PNC Bank and Vanguard Private Trust Co. She also served as trust counsel and compliance manager at Christiana Trust Co of Delaware.

Citigroup appointed Valentin Valderrabano as its new chief operating officer for the Citi Global Wealth business. He took the helm from Eduardo Martinez Campos. Prior to this, Valderrabano was the consumer business manager for Citibank Korea. 

Working at the US banking group for almost two decades, Valderrabano served in leadership roles across a variety of segments and geographies. He has worked in Spain, London, Greece, Singapore, the US and, most recently, Korea. Before joining Citigroup, he worked at The Coca-Cola Company in the US and Mexico.

Cresset Partners in the US appointed private credit and growth equity figure Tammy Funasaki as its managing director for business development. In her new role, Funasaki, who is based in Los Angeles, is responsible for expanding Cresset Partners’ presence on the West coast. Previously, Funasaki served as head of investor relations at Breakwater Management, a private credit and growth equity firm. Prior to Breakwater, Funasaki was a director for a single-family office, as well as an advisor in Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management division. 

Wealth Management Solutions appointed Melissa Bergeron as client service manager. Bergeron, who has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, joined partners Richard Riva and Martin Lombrano.
 

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NewEdge Wealth, which focuses on advising ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices and institutions, appointed Cameron Dawson as its first chief investment officer. A regular commentator in the broadcast media on financial affairs, Dawson frequently appears on Bloomberg, CNBC, and Fox Business, among many others. Prior to joining NewEdge Wealth, she was the chief market strategist at Fieldpoint Private Securities and a senior equity analyst at Bank of America.

The Colony Group promoted seven new principals: Indrika Arnold, senior wealth advisor; Ian Cole, SWA; Matthew C Gordon, SWA; Jeanie M Kirkiles, deputy chief of staff; Sheryl A Rothman, SWA; Paul Shapero, director, family office services; and Connor Sullivan, SWA.

SVB Private appointed Jon Kropf as head of advisor business development, a newly-formed role in which he directs SVB Private's national advisor recruiting strategy and execution. Kropf most recently served as senior vice president at First Republic where he led advisor hiring nationally for private wealth management. Prior to First Republic, he was national practice leader for ACA Group's diversified financial business segment and led the West coast asset management regulatory practice at PwC. Kropf has also worked at PIMCO and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

BancTrust, the investment bank, launched BancTrust Securities USA, its US broker-dealer affiliate. Based in New York, BancTrust Securities USA will represent BancTrust with US institutional investors and major US institutional investors. 

The initial New York-based team comprises Jack Thomas, managing director of fixed income trading; Erik Berg, MD debt capital markets; Rafael Elias, MD LatAm corporate credit strategy; Dan Bowers, executive director fixed income sales; and Maurice Batista, ED fixed income sales.

Thomas was previously head of emerging market trading – New York at Intesa Sanpaolo IMI Securities. His experience includes working at UBS Investment Bank, Santander, Societe Generale, and ING Financial Markets. Berg has more than 25 years of experience in international capital markets. He has served in senior capital markets roles in New York at Deutsche Bank, ING, ABN AMRO, Standard Bank of South Africa, Commerzbank, and Natixis. His experience includes responsibility for debt origination across Latin America including new bond issues, debt restructurings, debt buybacks and public and private sector debt exchanges. 

Elias was previously a director of research for Latin America at StoneX and formerly at Tellimer Markets. His experience spans over 25 years of being responsible for macro and corporate strategy at Cantor Fitzgerald, Credit Agricole, Knight Libertas, UBS, Deutsche Bank, ING, and Credit Suisse. 

Bowers is an investment professional with 20 plus years of experience in emerging markets. Before joining BancTrust USA, he served in senior EM sales roles with Unicredit and Societe Generale. Previously Bowers worked in trading at Moore Capital, Depfa Investment Bank and Galileo Asset Management. 

Batista has over 20 years of experience in financial services, with a focus on global EM. Prior to joining BancTrust USA, he worked in EM institutional sales at Torino Capital and Stifel Financial. Previously, at Renaissance Capital Securities he headed FICC sales in New York, focusing on Russia, CIS and Africa.

Newfront, a brokerage firm, added former Bank of America figure Rich Schainker to its retirement services team. He brought more than three decades of experience to the role.

At Bank of America, Schainker served as director of employee benefits for nearly three years. Previously, he was senior regional vice president – retirement plans at Invesco for 19 years. He has also served in leadership roles at John Hancock, Principal Financial Group, and T Rowe Price. Based in San Francisco, Schainker serves clients across the US.

Allspring Global Investments appointed Melissa Murphy as head of public relations. Murphy, who directs Allspring’s PR globally, reports to Debbi Tippett, head of corporate communications. Prior to this, Murphy worked at SunStar Strategic, and spent more than two decades leading PR strategies for asset manager firms.

Fidelity National Financial appointed Brian Maughan as executive vice president, chief innovation officer. In his expanded role, Maughan analyzes trends and market disruptions, searches for emerging market and technology opportunities, and directs investments into new and existing initiatives. 

Rockefeller Capital Management appointed Cheryl Young, a Bay Area-based figure, and her seven-member Young & Associates team to join Rockefeller Global Family Office. Young, working in the sector for 23 years, joined the firm’s Pacific Northwest Division, headed by division director Brian Riley. The team is based in Los Gatos, California. 

Rockefeller Capital Management also appointed Kristen Sario as director of the Southeast division. In this role, Sario oversees six offices and focuses on the continued growth in the Charlotte, Florida and Nashville markets. She is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Most recently at Morgan Stanley, Young is a graduate of New Mexico State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Members of her team include: Boaz Chan, Jennifer Seacrist, Wey Lim, and Nicholas Peterson, all vice presidents and client relationship directors, vice president and business practice manager Sarah Mijts, financial planning analyst Jenny Young, and senior client associate Cassidy Liu.

Fulcrum Asset Management appointed Chris DeMeo as head of solutions, North America. He joined from abrdn, where he was head of Americas within its client solutions group. DeMeo previously worked for investment solutions business Nu Paradigm (which he co-founded), Willis Towers Watson, Russell Investments and Merrill Lynch.

Bank of America appointed senior figure Jennifer Galvagna as head of trust solutions. Galvagna oversees the delivery, growth and innovation of trust solutions for Private Bank and Merrill clients. She reports to Jeff Busconi, head of products, services and platforms at the Private Bank, and is based in Boston. She joined the Private Bank in 2002.

Guernsey Finance, the promotional agency for the island’s financial services industry, appointed a dedicated representative for the US – Jonathan Gamble, formerly of Asset Risk Consultants, where he worked for two decades. Gamble holds the Fellow and Chartered Wealth manager designations from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and is a qualified member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). Amongst other roles, he is a STEP Guernsey committee member, a trustee of the Elizabeth College Foundation and has held several listed and non-listed non-executive positions.