Changes at the top of the US investment platform.

The chairman of alternative investment platform Artivest, Martin Beaulieu, is stepping up to become chairman and CEO. He works alongside James Waldinger, president and founder. 

Prior to his most recent role, Beaulieu was head of retail Retail iShares US at BlackRock, where he led all domestic iShares distribution. He was previously vice chairman and head of global distribution at MFS Investment Management.

Before he founded Artivest, Waldinger was a portfolio manager with Clarium Capital, a large global macro hedge fund established in 2002 by Peter Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of PayPal. He also served as the lead analyst on Thiel's initial Facebook investment in 2004. Waldinger has worked with a variety of technology startups in advisory, investment, and operational roles.

“This strategic leadership shift provides both executives with greater capacity to best achieve Artivest's key mission: to serve and support alternative investment managers, financial advisors, and qualified high net worth investors on its platform,” the firm said in a statement.

Artivest said recently that it has surpassed $1.0 billion in new transactions handled online by HNW investors into private funds.