The newest executives leading M&A efforts for RIAs and breakaway teams include Justin Ferri as managing director of Focus Connections, which is aimed at advisors transitioning into the independent space. Ferri was most recently a co-founding principal at Principium Ventures, a boutique private equity firm specializing in impact-oriented businesses. Before that, he was managing director and global head of Merrill Lynch’s alternative investments division.

Meanwhile, Eric Amar, Molly Bennard, Scott Holsopple and Sukanya Kuruganti have been brought in as vice presidents of business development.

Amar was formerly head of strategy and innovation at The Guardian Life Insurance Company and before that an associate principal at McKinsey & Company.

Bennard joins from AXA US, where she was head of strategic initiatives and, before that, was an associate at the investment banking arm of Morgan Stanley.

Holsopple was latterly head of product and business development at The Mutual Fund Store while Kuruganti was most recently director of corporate development and M&A at Barclays in the US, UK, Western Europe and South Africa. Earlier, Kuruganti was a vice president at Citigroup in New York, covering the US and Asia-Pacific.