A round-up of executive moves in the North American wealth management market during July.

Baird, the US wealth management house, added Philip M Stathos as director and financial advisor to its Portland, Maine, team. Stathos has 24 years of experience.

Before Baird, Stathos was a partner with Mayflower Advisors, a team within Wells Fargo. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and an MBA from Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Before Mayflower Advisors, Stathos held senior positions with Wells Fargo, AG Edwards, Fidelity Investments and others. 

Raymond James welcomed former Merrill Lynch financial advisors Eric Hobin, Jiles Robinson, Kristen Ragusin, Antonio Sordillo and Jason Whittier to its employee advisor channel – in Burlington and Boston, Massachusetts. The advisors previously worked at Merrill Lynch’s Burlington office. The offices at Raymond James are in RJA’s Southern New England Complex led by Bill Drew. Sordillo, Hobin, Robinson and Whittier previously managed $375 million in client assets and now operate as Evergreen Financial Partners of Raymond James. Joining them are senior registered client service associate Eryn Whittier and registered client service associate Josh Franklin.

Alex Brown, a division of Raymond James, brought in advisors Marina Tudela, Idalia Daguin and Gabriela Aguilar in Miami, Florida. Tudela, Daguin and Aguilar joined from UBS, where they previously managed $280 million in client assets. The team, comprised solely of women advisors, joins Alex. Brown’s Miami office, which is managed by Eric Termini.

Raymond James brought financial advisor Craig Weis to Raymond James & Associates, its employee advisor channel – in Roseville, California. Weis joined from UBS, where he previously managed approximately $130 million in client assets. He serves as the branch manager for RJA’s new Roseville, California, office and is joined by senior client associate Jennifer Goldsby. Weis has been in the financial services industry for more than 26 years, beginning his career as a financial advisor in Sacramento, California in 1994. In 2000, Weis joined Morgan Stanley and in 2005 began managing the company’s Roseville office, where he spent 10 years. In 2013, he joined UBS Wealth Management in Roseville as the branch manager. 

Raymond James welcomed financial advisor Sid Grant to its independent advisor channel. Grant, who joined from Wells Fargo Advisors, where he managed more than $230 million in client assets, manages the new RJFS Abilene branch in Texas. He has been in the financial services industry for 26 years. 

Cresset Asset Management announced that Barbara Young, senior managing director, had been appointed as co-head of family office services, serving alongside Bill Rudnick, senior partner, general counsel and head of Family Office Services. Young was previously chief executive, chief investment officer, and founding principal of Cypress Wealth Advisors, which Cresset bought in the spring of 2019. Prior to that, she was the founding president and chief executive of Springcreek Corporation, a wealth advisory firm that provided full family office services to high net worth families.

Z Capital Group, the global firm operating private equity and credit businesses, named Shahid Khoja as a director and member of Z Capital Credit Partners' investment team. Khoja is responsible for research and analysis on existing and prospective performing and distressed investments.

Prior to joining ZCG, Khoja spent seven years at Garrison Investment Group, a multi-strategy credit-oriented firm, where he most recently served as a director and senior credit analyst on the corporate credit investment team. Khoja served as an associate at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the corporate debt products group. He has a BA in economics from Bowdoin College. 

Arabella Advisors, the US organization guiding major philanthropists and impact investors, named Vince L'Erario as its first-ever chief information officer. L’Erario worked at a number of similar-sized organizations for more than 14 years.

Franklin Templeton appointed Adam Spector as executive vice president, head of global distribution, overseeing global retail and institutional distribution, including marketing and product strategy. Spector reports to president and chief executive Jenny Johnson.  

Oakbrook Solutions appointed Chris Martinez as product management director of its new LAVAwm workflow optimization and automation practice. This added to his existing role of leading the firm’s family office practice. 

Based in Chicago, Martinez has more than 25 years’ experience in the wealth management industry from prior C-level roles with The PrivateBank & Trust Co, Wilmington Trust, and Bingham Legg Advisers. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Southern California, is a Certified Financial Planner professional, and a member of the Financial Planning Association.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management named Barry McKenzie as market president in Naples, Florida. McKenzie, manages product and service delivery for the Naples region, and has direct responsibility for wealth managers, client strategists, and support staff. He reports to southeast regional president, Kent Moegerle. Prior to this, McKenzie worked at Northern Trust where he was senior vice president and senior personal investment portfolio manager. Prevoiusly, he was a founder and managing partner of Harbour Capital Advisors; chief investment officer for a private family office, managing a diversified portfolio of publicly traded securities, alternative investments, and direct private investments; and SVP and portfolio manager at US Trust Wealth Management.

EisnerAmper, the global business advisory firm, appointed Graham Rogers as a principal in the firm’s financial advisory services group. Rogers previously operated his own firm, Rogers Damages and Valuation Services LLC. He also held senior leadership positions at national and regional accounting firms; and served as an officer in the US Navy.

Envestnet appointed former senior TD Ameritrade figure Dani Fava as its strategic development head, a new role at the firm. Fava reports to Rich Aneser, group head of strategy, who joined in the first quarter of this year to build the new strategy office. The group partners with teams across the firm to run strategic development, engagement, and planning, including organic cross-functional efforts, external partnerships, inorganic M&A, and evaluation of growth opportunities.  

Most recently Fava was director of institutional innovation at TD Ameritrade Institutional, where she managed the launch of the iRebal portfolio rebalancing solution on the Veo platform, and the Model Market Center. She was also responsible for rolling out TD Ameritrade's voice-first capabilities, which deploy conversational AI for communicating with advisors. Prior to joining TD Ameritrade in 2012, Fava was a senior product manager and strategist at Fiserv.

A new wealth management house based in New Jersey launched, built by a team of advisors who previously oversaw $420 million while at Morgan Stanley. Lawrence Durso, his son Michael Durso and advisor Michael Lombardi created ShoreHaven Wealth Partners, located in Red Bank. Prior to this, the team worked at Durso Wealth Management Group. Durso has worked in the financial services industry since 1978; Michael Durso, CFA, is an investment specialist, who has worked in financial services since 2006; Lombardi, CFP, also has experience of working in financial services since 2006, and Sheryl Iannuzzelli is the director of relationship management, chief compliance officer.

Tiedemann Advisors appointed former Cresset Capital senior managing director Jill Shipley as head of family governance and education. Shipley oversees a new division focused on helping families, family enterprises, family offices and foundations to enhance communication, educate and prepare rising generations, strategically and proactively plan for transitions, and make effective shared decisions. Shipley also served as managing director in the Institute for Family Culture at Abbot Downing, and as director of next generation education at GenSpring Family Offices.

The chief executive of Cresset Asset Management, Michael Cole, resigned from the US wealth management firm after a busy two-year stint in the post that saw him hire a raft of advisors and expand in different parts of the US.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management appointed Kent Moegerle as Southeast regional president, overseeing the Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Naples, Palm Beach Gardens, Tampa, and Winter Park markets. Moegerle reports to BNY Mellon Wealth Management CEO Catherine Keating and serves as a member of the wealth management leadership team. He joined the firm in 2019 as Southeast Regional head of client strategy. Prior to this, he spent nearly two decades at SunTrust, most recently serving as private wealth management division executive with oversight of revenue growth and development of key corporate and market initiatives. 
 

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CC Capital Partners appointed Matthew Skurbe as chief financial officer, chief operating officer and senior managing director. Skurbe is responsible for leading all operational, financial and control processes for CC Capital. Prior to this role Skurbe was an MD in finance and the treasurer for Blackstone. He was also the chief operating officer for Blackstone Liquidity Solutions and a member of the firm's valuation committee and enterprise risk committee. Before this, he was the CFO for Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust.

Z Capital Group, a privately held investment firm with about $2.8 billion of assets, appointed Laura Krivec as director in corporate development. Prior to this role, Krivec worked for nearly five years at Cambridge Associates in London, most recently as an associate investment director in the Real Assets Investment Group. 

Argent Trust Company promoted Reid Harrell to chief executive, having previously been chief fiduciary officer and western regional manager for Argent Trust. Based in San Antonio, Harrell reports to Kyle McDonald, CEO of Argent Financial Group. Before joining Argent, Harrell held senior positions at The Trust Company in San Antonio, Texas and served as CEO when Argent acquired the company in 2013. 

Altrinsic Global Advisors, the investment firm, appointed Sara Sikes as head of client experience. The role was a new one at the firm. Sikes will provide strategic direction and oversight to the firm's client service, communications, and marketing efforts. Prior to this, Sikes worked at Greenwich Associates, the global provider of data, analytics, and insights to the financial services industry. 

Argent Trust Company promoted Reid Harrell to chief executive officer. Harrell previously served as the chief fiduciary officer and western regional manager for Argent Trust and is chairman of the trust management committee. Based in San Antonio, he reports to Kyle McDonald, CEO of Argent Financial Group.

Before joining Argent, Harrell held senior positions at The Trust Company in San Antonio, Texas and served as CEO when Argent acquired the company in 2013. Prior to that, he served as a market executive for the wealth management division of BBVA Compass and also worked at Bank of America as private banking market executive for the state of Arizona.

Argent Financial Group promoted Brooks Campany to regional manager of the Oxford, Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee offices. Campany has served as market president of Argent Trust Company’s Oxford office since 2018.

Argent Financial Group partnered with Todd DeKruyter and DK Financial. DeKruyter has worked in the family financial planning industry for more than 10 years. He serves as a family wealth strategist on behalf of Argent’s Family Wealth Services division.

Wells Fargo appointed behavioral finance expert Michael Liersch to the newly-created role of head of advice and growth strategies for private wealth management. He is be based in New York City. Liersch leads a newly-combined team responsible for delivering planning services and growth strategies for clients of Wells Fargo Private Bank and Abbot Downing. Prior to this, Liersch worked as managing director and global head of wealth planning and advice at JP Morgan. Before that, he was head of behavioral finance and goals-based consulting at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, and was head of behavioral finance at Barclays Wealth, Americas. 

Wealthtech software company Advisor360° made four hires: Meredith Crouse as senior vice president, chief people officer, Doug Wood as senior vice president, customer success and operations, Gilad Sade as vice president, engineering development, and John Considine as vice president, solutions architect.

Prior to joining Advisor360°, Wood served as product director at Lucent Technologies, he was a founding VP at Pirus Networks (acquired by Sun Microsystems) and an SVP/co-GM at EMC Corporation. Prior to joining Advisor360°, Sade had various roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he was most recently VP of engineering. Before his appointment, Considine was GM of Cloud Infrastructure Services at IBM, chief technology officer at Verizon Terremark, founder and CEO of the enterprise cloud computing startup CloudSwitch, and director of engineering at Sun Microsystems. 

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, the investment house, appointed Michael J Cochran as a partner, based in Atlanta, Georgia. Cochran is a member of the firm's corporate department and co-chair of its private equity team. Prior to this, Cochran was at Dentons, where he previously served as chair of the US corporate practice. 

Arsenal Capital Partners, the private equity firm investing in specialty industrials and healthcare companies, made a number of senior appointments.

Aaron Wolfe joined as an investment partner. Wolfe had been at Sun Capital Partners, where he most recently served as an MD and head of Sun Capital Partners' New York office. 

John DiGiovanni, who joined the firm's healthcare team in 2018, was promoted from principal to investment partner; he serves on the boards of two Arsenal healthcare companies, Accumen and Hopebridge.

Dr John Mattison, who has been functioning as an Arsenal senior advisor, joined the firm's healthcare team as an operating partner and chief medical information officer. Previously, Dr Mattison was chief medical information officer for the Southern California Region of Kaiser Permanente, in which capacity he helped support the growth of one of the nation's leading integrated healthcare institutions.

Seventy2 Capital Wealth Management, based in the Washington DC and Baltimore area, appointed Andrew Hahn, CFP® as a vice president and financial advisor.

Tolleson Wealth Management promoted one of its senior figures, Royce Ramey, to the newly-minted role of chief experience officer. It’s a post from which he oversees how clients’ interactions with the business are kept at a high level. Ramey sits on the firm’s governing CEO Council. Prior to joining Tolleson Wealth Management in 2010, Ramey provided family office services to ultra-high net worth families at GenSpring Family Offices in the Phoenix, Arizona area. 

HarbourVest Partners, the global private markets asset manager, appointed Rob MacGoey as the chief financial officer for its management company. MacGoey, works with Karin Lagerlund, current CFO, who concentrates on client and fund accounting, treasury and capital markets. MacGoey was previously chief accounting officer and controller at Apollo Global Management.

RBC Wealth Management – US named Lauri Droster to the role of St Paul complex director. Prior to this, Droster was branch director of RBC Wealth Management’s Madison, Wisconsin branch. She began her career in the securities industry in 1986.

Pascal Financial, the wealth management technology firm, appointed Howard Atkinson as chief business officer. Atkinson reports to Frances Zomer, chief executive of Pascal. Pascal launched an artificial intelligence-driven platform, using insight drawn from behavioral finance, in the first quarter of this year. 

Russ Morrison was named global chief investment officer at Aegon Asset Management in charge of managing its €170 billion ($188 billion) fixed income investment platform and a team of 140 globally.

Morrison moved from Barings (formerly Babson Capital), where he spent 17 years in a number of roles, including president and head of fixed income, equities and multi-asset. Before that, he worked in the fixed income divisions at First Union Bank, Ernst & Young and North Carolina National Bank.

K2 Intelligence Financial Integrity Network appointed the former head of Argentina’s Financial Intelligence Unit, Mariano Federici as a vice president in the firm’s Washington DC office. Federici is a global expert on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, and has worked in government, international institutions and the private sector for more than 25 years.