The latest roundup of moves for the North American wealth management industry.

Republic Capital Group, an investment bank concentrating on the RIA, wealth and asset management, securities, and fintech industries, appointed Jim Collins as partner, managing director and general counsel. Collins was previously a partner at the M&A investment bank, Silver Lane Advisors, and at the law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, among other roles.

EncorEstate Plans, a fintech company that provides estate planning software for financial advisors, hired Riskalyze co-founder Matt Pistone as the firm’s first chief technology officer. Previously, Pistone was CTO for 10 years at Riskalyze.

Banco Santander appointed Christiana Riley as regional head of North America. Riley is responsible for all the bank’s businesses in the US and Mexico, with the respective country heads, Tim Wennes and Felipe García Ascencio, reporting to her. She reports to the group’s CEO, Héctor Grisi, who was the regional head for North America until he was appointed to his role in January this year. Riley has served in several leadership roles over the past 17 years in both Europe and the Americas. She was most recently regional CEO for Deutsche’s business across the Americas, based in New York. 

Manhattan West, a US wealth management and alternative investments firm, appointed Patrick McDonald as managing director and financial advisor. McDonald,who is based in Orange County, California, has more than a decade of relevant experience to Manhattan West, specializing in tax preparation and financial planning. Previously, McDonald was director at MAI Capital Management. Before MAI, McDonald was an associate in Goldman Sachs’ executive counseling division, providing tax preparation, wealth transfer, alternatives and investment management services to corporate executive and wealthy families. 

Argent Mineral Management, a subsidiary of Argent Financial Group, appointed Anna Rachal as mineral manager. Rachal, concentrates on mineral wealth, contract negotiation, oil and gas accounting and asset evaluation. She reports directly to David Luke, Argent Mineral Management president and David Smith, Argent Mineral Management Louisiana manager. 

Toews Asset Management named Cory Kendall as its new managing director of strategic partnerships. Kendall has more than two decades’ experience in sales leadership in the financial industry. Most recently, Kendall acted as fintech and sales strategy consultant for CK Consulting as well as executive vice president of sales strategy for The Pacific Financial Group.

Dynasty Financial Partners started to work with Andrew Marsh, a Canadian entrepreneurial executive, and founder of Richardson Wealth. Marsh’s work at Richardson Wealth helped propel it from a startup to having more than $30 billion of assets under management in 15 years – the business was sold in 2020. Dynasty created this new role as part of its “Advisor to CEO” program, which provides content and coaching for CEOs in Dynasty’s network of independent RIAs.

Fairport Wealth, a Cleveland, Ohio-based Hightower advisory business, appointed Matt Logar, its president, as CEO. With more than two decades of wealth management experience, Logar succeeded Ken Coleman, who retired after nearly 25 years of leading Fairport. Logar joined Fairport in 2021 as director of client strategy and in 2022 was elevated to the role of president.

Ameriprise Financial’s branch channel brought in father-son team Harry Slade III and Harry Slade IV. They serve clients in Ellicott City, Maryland. Slade III, a 25-year industry veteran and Slade IV, who has served clients as an advisor for the past eight years, joined from Edward Jones and manage about $330 million in assets. The practice will operate as Ellicott Mills Wealth Management and is supported by client service associates Lynda Day, Stacy Fernen and Shawn Kramer. 

IQ-EQ, the global investor services group, appointed Matt Okolita as regional chief executive for the Americas. He took over from Mark Fordyce, who remained as non-executive chairman at the firm. Okolita reports to Mark Pesco, IQ-EQ group chief executive. Before this new role, Okolita was global head of outsourced business services, and worked with Fordyce for a number of years. Fordyce joined IQ-EQ in 2020 with the acquisition of Blue River Partners and steered the business through four subsequent strategic acquisitions.
 

RBC Global Asset Management, part of Royal Bank of Canada, appointed Donald Sanya as head of US institutional sales. Sanya leads all US distribution efforts for RBC GAM’s US business. The role is a newly-created one and Sanya is based in Boston, Massachusetts. He continues to report to Mike Lee, head of North American Institutional at RBC GAM.

Raymond James brought in financial advisor William Anderson to join its independent advisor channel. Anderson owns SW Anderson Financial in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is also joined by office manager Emily Rodarte. In in the wealth industry since 2002, Anderson previously served for 21 years serving as an Army officer. Anderson holds both Certified Financial PlannerTM and Accredited Asset Management SpecialistTM professional designations. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a master’s degree in space operations from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in business information systems from the University of Alabama.

International law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner appointed Rob Crea as a partner, resident in its San Francisco office. He works within the corporate transactions practice as the firm’s new US head of fund formation. 

Definiti, a US retirement services firm, appointed former AssetMark chief executive Ronald Cordes and former US Senator Patrick Toomey to join its managers board. (Cordes is also a board member of Pathstone, the wealth management firm.)

Toomey represented Pennsylvania in the US Senate from 2011 to 2023, serving on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Budget; and Finance Committees, as well as the Joint Economic Committee and the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Toomey was the Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee from 2021 to 2023 and previously chaired the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection. Before that, Toomey served in the US House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005, where he was a member of the House Financial Services and Budget Committees. 

Cordes co-founded and served as CEO and executive co-chairman of AssetMark, the US-managed account platform. He co-authored The Art of Investing published by McGraw Hill. Cordes is currently an Advisory Council Member to LMP, assisting in deal sourcing, evaluation and due diligence, and is co-founder of the Cordes Foundation with his wife. He serves on the boards of MicroVest Capital Management, ImpactAssets, Align Impact, Pathstone and the Social Impact Lab at Lynn University.

Warburg Pincus, the investment house, appointed business figure David Gabriel as a senior advisor in its industrials group. Gabriel, who has more than four decades’ experience at a number of firms, works with Warburg Pincus to identify and evaluate new investment opportunities in distribution and other sectors and help drive value-creation at portfolio companies.

Global law firm Goodwin appointed Anthony McCusker as the firm’s next chair. The appointment will become effective at the beginning of the firm’s next fiscal year on October 1, 2023. McCusker will succeed Robert Insolia, who has served as chair since 2019 and as managing partner from 2012 to 2019.

Private Advisor Group, the US wealth management business, appointed Adam Schorr as chief financial officer – now an expanded role. Separately, the firm said that Petra Barone, previously CFO, had assumed a new role as head of finance. 

As CFO, Schorr's responsibilities cover leading the strategy for the finance and accounting teams, helping oversee the firm's capital strategy and investments, developing robust financial metrics and business intelligence, and engaging with stakeholders. Barone's remit is to oversee advisor compensation, advisory fee billing, accounts payable and treasury functions. He will continue to serve as the primary liaison with key sponsor and compliance partners. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Schorr has more than 17 years of financial services experience.

Raymond James welcomed financial advisor Rui M Forcada to the firm’s employee advisor channel. He will serve as senior vice president – investments. Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Forcada joined from Deutsche Bank with over 35 years of experience in the financial services industry. Forcada began his career in 1986 as a service officer at Citibank’s international private banking department in New York. In 1989, he moved to Miami to continue his private banking and wealth management career at BankBoston International, Lloyds Bank International, HSBC Private Bank International and Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, having held senior leadership positions at the last two.

Raymond James announced that Art A Garcia, former chief financial officer at Ryder System, and Raymond W McDaniel, chairman of Moody’s Corporation, had joined its board of directors. 

Monetary Metals, a business headquartered in Arizona, appointed Jeff Deist as general counsel. Deist is a former president of the Mises Institute, a US think tank that advocates the classical liberal position on economics and other topics. Deist had been president of the Mises Institute since 2013. Before that, he was chief of staff for congressman Ron Paul, and worked in private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and tax law.