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Who's Moving Where In Wealth Management? - Aite Group, Wilmington Trust, Argent, Others
Editorial Staff
2 September 2020
Aite Group Argent Trust Company The Middle Tennessee native has more than 30 years’ experience in estate planning, trust administration, nonprofits, financial services and business law. He joins Argent from the Tennessee Baptist Foundation, where he spent six years serving as executive vice president and general counsel. His investment and trust background also includes six years at Pinnacle Financial Partners and 11 years with Calvary Banking in Murfreesboro. “Chris is an experienced trust professional and attorney with superior leadership skills,” said Alderman. “His proven commitment to serving people in all stages of life equips him to lead Argent's wealth management practice in Middle Tennessee.” Based in Ruston, Louisiana, and managing around $30 billion for clients, Argent marks its 30th anniversary this year.
Aite Group, the consultancy, has announced that it has made a range of appointments in areas including financial services.
Ginger Schmeltzer is named as a senior analyst for Aite’s retail banking and payments practice covering enterprise retail payments, emerging payments, and the processor and acquirer landscapes.
Before joining Aite Group, Schmeltzer was the principal and founder of GDS Advisors, a strategy consulting firm focused primarily on fintech, digital banking, and payments. She was also SVP of emerging payments at Fiserv.
Rodney Nelsestuen has been appointed as a senior analyst covering strategic IT matters relevant to chief information officers across financial services - including banking, securities and investments, insurance - such as digital transformation - cloud migration, IT services and outsourcing, contract negotiation, and vendor management.
Nelsestuen brings many years of experience in financial services, including a decade in credit and finance, over a decade as a business-first CIO, and nearly a decade as a CEO. Most recently, he was CIO and chief information security officer at Merchants Bank NA. Previously, Nelsestuen spent seven years advising global financial institutions and technology vendors through research and consulting at CEB TowerGroup. Prior to that, he was the CIO at Agribank.
Manoj Upreti is named a senior analyst with Aite Group’s Life Insurance and Annuity practice. He brings 15 years of experience in product development, market research, and digital transformations in the life insurance, annuity, and retirement industries.
Prior to joining Aite, Upreti worked in leadership roles for major insurers, such as National Life, Transamerica, Genworth, and MetLife. Recently, Upreti was an advisor to the chief marketing officer at National Life, helping the organization review its life insurance products through market research, competitive analysis, consumer inputs, and design thinking.
Vinod Jain is a senior analyst who supports the efforts of Aite Group’s institutional securities and investment team. He concentrates on institutional trading operations, post-trade processing, audit and regulatory compliance, and data management across equity, fixed income, and OTC derivatives.
Jain brings over 20 years of experience in capital markets. He has authored articles in various publications, participated in industry working groups, and moderated conference discussions. Jain is an expert at providing strategy and operations consulting, and he has worked in trade operations and conducted audit.
Wilmington Trust
Wilmington Trust has appointed Scott Wilkins as a senior wealth advisor, focusing on the Southeast region, and based in Atlanta.
Wilkins has more than three decades of experience in the financial services and consumer goods and services industries, during which time he worked with companies in the US, Europe, and Latin America. In 2007, Wilkins was the managing partner and owner of Cielo Partners, a private equity and advisory firm targeting small to middle market entities. Previously he served as a vice president in the Private Wealth Management division at Morgan Stanley, a senior securities analyst at SG Securities in Paris, France, and was a senior securities analyst at HSBC working from their offices in London and Paris.
Earlier in his career Wilkins held positions with Bank of America Securities in New York, Deutsche Bank/ING Barings in New York and Mexico City, and Royal Doulton in England.
Wilkins holds an MBA from the London Business School and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Georgia.
Argent Trust Company has named Chris Kelly as market president for its wealth market in Nashville. He will serve as the senior leader of trust, estate and retirement services administration in Middle Tennessee and report to company president Ken Alderman.
Raymond James
Raymond James has welcomed advisors John Cleary and Renee Rossi to Raymond James & Associates – the firm’s employee advisor channel.
Cleary and Rossi join from Merrill Lynch, where they previously managed approximately $108 million in client assets. They join RJA’s West Hartford, Connecticut office, which is managed by Marty Carroll and is part of the Southern New England Complex led by Bill Drew. The team operates as The Cleary Group of Raymond James, RJA said in a statement.
First vice president of investments, Cleary has been in the financial services industry for more than 24 years. He began his career in 1996 with Paine Webber, which later became UBS. He spent 12 years with UBS before transitioning to Merrill Lynch, where he spent another 12 years before joining Raymond James. Cleary is a graduate of Bryant University with a degree in business administration.
Rossi began her career in the financial services industry almost 40 years ago as a wholesaler in 1981. In 2015, she transitioned from her career as a wholesaler to become a financial advisor. She was previously with Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan before joining Merrill Lynch in 2017.