The latest moves, appointments and personnel changes in the North American wealth management industry.

Ballast Rock Private Wealth
RIA Ballast Rock Private Wealth has appointed Joe Miller as a wealth advisor; he is based in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Miller has experience of serving high and ultra-HNW individuals and family office clients, as well as in fields such as fixed income and alternative investments. 

Prior to this, Miller was an advisor at Merrill Lynch. He began his career at Morgan Stanley as a fixed income specialist before moving to high yield and distressed corporate credit trading. After leaving Morgan Stanley in 2009, Miller worked in roles across sales, trading, and portfolio management in the high yield and distressed corporate credit asset class.

The firm was formed in 2022 by investment management business Ballast Rock.

Coller Capital
Coller Capital, which manages private market secondaries investments, has appointed Phil Gaechter as a director based in Chicago. He works in the private wealth secondaries solutions team.

The term “secondaries” applies to the buying and selling of pre-existing stakes in private investments, such as private equity, venture capital and private credit. The sector has grown in recent years, providing more liquidity and options for market participants.

Gaechter will report to Jonathan McEvoy, managing director and head of US private wealth distribution. Gaechter will be responsible for overseeing and growing the firm’s presence in the Chicago territory. Before this role, Gaechter spent more than 22 years at Nuveen, most recently within its private wealth advisory group, where he was responsible for fundraising efforts amongst private clients, private banks, and RIAs in the Central region of the US. Before this, Gaechter led internal sales and service at Nuveen, as well as serving in several senior sales roles focused on the Rocky Mountain and Midwest Regions. Gaechter has also worked at BNY Mellon/Dreyfus as a regional advisor consultant, with a focus on private wealth clients in the Rocky Mountain region.  

The PWSS team, which was launched in 2022, now consists of more than 30 dedicated investment professionals. In April, the firm launched Coller Secondaries Private Equity Opportunities Fund, a tender offer fund open to accredited high net worth investors in the US. 

Coller Capital has offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, Luxembourg, Zurich, Melbourne and Montreal. The firm has $33 billion in assets under management and more than 30 years of experience in the market.  

Ocorian
Ocorian, which provides fund administration and corporate services, has recruited Michael Gull as head of US funds sales. He will be based in Ocorian’s New York office.

Gull has worked in the sector for almost three decades at firms in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

Most recently he worked for Carta in New York where he was director, sales management and business development. Previously, he was MD, sales management and business development at SS&C Technologies.