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North America Executive Moves: July 2013

Eliane Chavagnon

13 August 2013

Alabama-headquartered Regions Bank hired three experienced bankers to expand its real estate capabilities in Texas.

Wendel Pardue, Richard Gross, and Buddy Billingsley joined from Wells Fargo and will focus on providing financing and advisory services to private regional and national developers, with an emphasis on office, retail, industrial and multi-family projects.

Pardue was named commercial real estate market manager for Texas and will be responsible for managing a team of commercial real estate relationship managers and service specialists across the state.

Pardue and Gross will be based in Dallas, with a primary focus on clients and projects in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Based in Austin, Billingsley will be responsible for business development in Austin, San Antonio, and surrounding markets.

Raymond James recruited financial advisor Eric Muir and his investment team in British Columbia to expand the firm’s footprint in the Burnaby and White Rock areas.

The team, which joined from National Bank, provides wealth management strategies and portfolio management to individual investors and their families, as well as professionals, business owners and clients approaching or living in retirement.

Carne Group, which specializes in advising asset managers about how they should be run, appointed Vanessa Barrett to its team of independent fund directors in the Cayman Islands.

Barrett, with more than 12 years’ experience in the hedge funds industry, is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and has worked with Ernst & Young and UBS in several jurisdictions, including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the UK and US. She has served as a director on Cayman Islands funds since 2010 and has experience at senior management level with the alternative fund services division at UBS.

Tampa, FL-headquartered JHS Capital Advisors, a dual-registered broker/dealer and RIA, appointed Thomas Johnson as a vice president of investments, financial advisor, in Minneapolis, MN.

Johnson, with more than 24 years’ experience in financial services, serves high net worth clients including families, business owners and retirees.

Prior to joining JHS, Johnson spent six years at RBC Wealth Management and also worked at Piper Jaffray’s asset management business for 28 years. He was also a member of the arbitration panel at the NASD .

In addition to hiring Johnson, JHS appointed Sheri Rhyan as a registered client associate, also based in Minneapolis. Rhyan previously served as a registered associate at Benjamin F Edwards & Co, and was also a compliance specialist at Focus Financia. She also spent nine years at Piper Jaffray.

The JP Morgan Trust Company of Delaware recruited Beth King from The Northern Trust Company of Delaware as team leader, based in Wilmington.

Reporting to Patrick Devanney, US trust practice team leader, King will manage the JP Morgan Delaware Trust team and ensure coordination across markets on Delaware-based business.

King was most recently chief fiduciary officer at The Northern Trust Company of Delaware - a role she assumed in 2010.  Previously, she was an associate at Gordon, Fournaris and Mammarella, focused on litigation regarding Delaware trust law. This included asset protection trusts, direction trusts and dynasty trusts. 

Bank of America appointed Clayton Rose and Pierre De Weck as new directors, bringing the number of directors at the firm to 15.

Rose, a former executive at JP Morgan, spent 20 years heading two of JP Morgan’s five lines of business - global investment banking and global equities. He was also a member of the firm’s senior management team.

De Weck previously served at Deutsche Bank as a member of its group executive committee and global head of private wealth management, before which he held a number of senior executive roles at Citigroup and UBS. In addition to his responsibilities as head of private wealth management, he was chairman of the supervisory board at Sal Oppenheim Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, until he retired in 2012.

Nashville, TN-based Avenue Bank added three bankers to its private client team, in a move to expand its expertise on the medical industry, physician practices and professional services firms.

Leading the new division is Steve Jaynes, senior vice president and director of private client banking - medical and professional services. Jaynes retired from SunTrust’s medical banking group in 2011, but has returned to medical banking having joined Avenue.

Private client bankers Bob Lawhon and Mike Blanchard also join the firm’s medical and professional services team as senior vice presidents, with 20 years and 35 years experience in the industry, respectively. Prior to joining Avenue both held similar positions at SunTrust Bank.

Atlantic Trust, the private wealth management division of New York-listed Invesco, appointed Jason Stoneman as a senior vice president and senior relationship manager in Washington, DC.

Stoneman, with more than eight years of industry experience, joined Atlantic Trust from HighTower Advisors, where he was a director of investment strategies for a team overseeing $1.2 billion in institutional and private client assets. Before that, he was a financial analyst with Merrill Lynch Private Banking and Investment Group.

In his new role, Stoneman will work with clients and their advisors to implement investment and estate plans, as well as supporting the business development and overall client service efforts for the Washington, DC, office. 

Philadelphia, PA-based Janney Montgomery Scott hired Steven Sapirstein as vice president/assistant branch manager in Boca Raton, FL, while further north David Seigerman joined as first vice president/investments in Bedminster, NJ.

Sapirstein - latterly of Raymond James - brings with him around $23.8 million in assets under management and is charged with expanding Janney’s footprint in South Florida. He has 20 years of experience in the industry and in his new role reports to regional manager, Michael Levin.

Seigerman, meanwhile, has 14 years of industry experience and joined from Morgan Stanley with $67.8 million in AuM and $860,000 in production. He worked at Citigroup between 2006 and 2009, having previously been with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter for seven years.  

The Cayman office of the offshore law firm Appleby promoted Anna-Lise Wisdom and Benjamin Woolf to counsel, and Katie Pearson and Christian Victory to senior associates.

Banc of California, the holding company for Pacific Trust Bank and The Private Bank of California, named Eric Holoman, president of Magic Johnson Enterprises, as a board director.

Holomon, who manages MJE’s day-to-day operations and oversees its investment funds, has also been appointed as chair of Banc of California’s new community reinvestment act committee.

Prior to joining MJE, Holoman held private banking roles at Bank of America and Wells Fargo, including as head of Wells Fargo’s private mortgage bank in Los Angeles, CA.

David Cote and Ellen Futter retired from JP Morgan’s board of directors after 16 and five years of service respectively.

The firm said it intends to appoint new directors to the board later this year.

The New York-based wealth manager, Oppenheimer Holdings, made John Blau president of its asset management unit.

Blau joined Oppenheimer in 1998 as a financial advisor, later worked as head of West Coast asset management marketing and finally served as co-head of sales and marketing for Oppenheimer Asset Management.

HSBC named George Crosby as president of HSBC Private Bank International, based in Miami, FL, and responsible for all activities covering the Latin American markets in the US.

He reports to Marlon Young, head of HSBC global private banking for the Americas.

Crosby previously served as group head for Brazil at HSBC Private Bank International, overseeing a team of bankers in Miami and New York.

Crosby joined HSBC in 2004 as head of the Brazil team, before which he was head of ABN AMRO’s Miami and LatAm segments. Earlier, he served as managing director of Brazilian bank Itau Europa, based in Luxembourg, having starting his private banking career with Bank of Boston in 1983.

Crosby serves on the board of HSBC Private Bank International in Miami and is also president of the board of directors of the Florida International Banking Association.

RBC Wealth Management brought in Juan Pablo Cortes from UBS Wealth Management as a director, Americas, based within the firm’s London-based UK private client wealth management team.

Cortes will work with internal teams and external advisors to provide wealth management services to Latin American and Iberian high and ultra high net worth clients resident in the UK or overseas. He will report to Martin Heale, head of Americas, private client wealth management.

Cortes has over 16 years of international wealth management, retail and commercial banking experience spanning Colombia, Panama, the US and the UK. In his former role at UBS, he worked for two years as a client advisor within the LatAm and Caribbean team. He spent the previous three years at Barclays Wealth , first as a business manager and then as a private banker for the Iberian team.

Deutsche Bank bolstered its recently re-established trust administration center in the Cayman Islands with the appointment of Stuart Bray to head up the new team.

Bray was transferred from within the Deutsche Bank Group and has over 16 years’ experience in the private client trust and company arena.

He previously worked for Deutsche Bank's global trust solutions business in Guernsey and as head of its Mauritius global trust solutions operation.

Ethel McLean and Allison Payne were also appointed to the team in client-facing roles and they will be supported by Elizabeth Watt, who will now focus full time on supporting the trust business.

Raymond James Investment Advisors Division expanded its management team, naming Sean Marrin, Chuck Curtis, Glenn Flego and Christian Williams as regional directors.

Marrin is the regional director covering the West and will be based in Denver, CO. He joined from LPL, where he was a masters recruiter. Prior to this, he spent over 18 years with Charles Schwab, where he served in a variety of roles, including senior business development officer at Schwab Advisor Services.

Curtis is the regional director for the Central region and will be based in St Petersburg, FL. He has extensive experience in the financial services industry and spent more than 28 years at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and predecessor firms, in a variety of roles.

Flego, regional director for the Northeast, joined from Fidelity, where he was vice president of institutional wealth services. Prior to this, he was the head of sales and marketing for Interactive Advisory Software.

Based in Raleigh, NC, Williams is the regional director for the Southeast. He joined Raymond James in 2007 as a vice president and business development consultant for the firm’s independent broker/dealer. Prior to joining Raymond James, he was a director of retail offices for UBS in North Carolina. He began his wealth management career as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch.

Kinetic Partners, an international professional services firm for the asset management industry, appointed Brad Ackerman as a director within its consulting team, based in the firm’s New York office.

Ackerman, with more than 20 years’ experience working in financial services, joined Kinetic Partners from Hull Capital Management, an investment management firm running a special situations focused fund of hedge funds.

In his new role, Ackerman will support the existing due diligence team and be responsible for the global Alternative Investment Operational Due Diligence service offering to investors.

Homrich Berg, the independent wealth management firm based in Atlanta, GA, confirmed that Lee Van Leuven, president of LVL Financial joined the firm.

Van Leuven, with 30 years’ financial services experience, has spent much of her career serving clients in the Atlanta area.

In her new role, Van Leuven will continue to provide financial planning at HB, which will open another Atlanta area office in the Northcreek office park, where LVL Financial is currently located.

Bank of The West, which is looking to ramp up its wealth management business over the next two years, brought in Ann von Germeten as chief marketing officer.

Von Germeten has over 25 years of marketing experience, including 15 years at Charles Schwab & Co, where most recently she was a brand and advertising executive. In that role, she was responsible for brand strategy, brand identity, retail branch experience and advanced analytics.

At Bank of The West, von Germeten is also a member of the senior management committee and reports to president and chief operating officer, Maura Markus.

Pete Balderston, former managing director of operations and integration at GenSpring Family Offices, joined Private Client Resources as senior managing director.

Balderston, with over 20 years of experience in the wealth management and private banking industry, will lead PCR’s data service and client engagement teams.

US Bank hired Eric Stern as managing director of private banking for Ascent Private Capital Management, the firm’s ultra high net worth business, in San Francisco, CA.

Stern will be supported by a national advisory team that provides wealth impact planning and financial administration in the Bay Area. He joined from Morgan Stanley Private Bank, where as vice president he worked with individuals and businesses. Before that, he helped launch the private bank lending solutions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Meanwhile, US Bank also strengthened its high net worth business in the Twin Cities - the Private Client Reserve - promoting Lou Gomez and Mark Moeller to director of sales and investment team lead respectively. Gomez and Moeller will report to Mike Ott, central region president of the PCR.

Gomez, with over 27 years of industry experience, will lead a team working across the Twin Cities market to establish connections among prospective and existing clients. Before joining the PCR, Gomez launched and ran the wealth management business for Associated Bank in the Twin Cities. He also has experience working with small- to mid-sized businesses and entrepreneurs as a commercial banker at JP Morgan.

Moeller will serve as the local investment practice leader and lead professionals in developing and implementing investment portfolios for HNW individuals and institutions. He has over 20 years of professional experience, the firm said, having served as an investment consultant for institutions including foundations, endowments and pension plan.

The global offshore law-firm Carey Olsen expanded its trust team in the BVI and the Cayman Islands by hiring Graham Stoute as a new associate at the firm's Cayman office.

Graham will advise private and institutional clients on the establishment, re-organization and administration of Cayman and BVI trusts and trust structures, including STAR and VISTA trusts, private trust companies, commercial trust arrangements and charitable trusts. He will also advise on wills and estate planning, probate and resealing applications, and the administration of complex estates.

West Hartford, CT-based Northstar Wealth Partners recruited two fee-based advisory veterans in the shape of Tyler Potts and J Addison McAraw to open a new office in the Old Saybrook area.

Potts and Addison - latterly of Essex Financial Services - have over $866 million in assets under management, with 36 years of combined financial and client service experience.

Highbridge Capital Management, the alternative investment management arm of JP Morgan, appointed Scott Kapnick as chief executive.

Co-founder Glenn Dubin also confirmed he will remain as chairman of the firm.

Kapnick joined Highbridge in 2007 to run Highbridge Principal Strategies, the firm’s global credit and private investment platform. Prior to joining Highbridge, Kapnick spent 21 years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as a member of the firm's management committee and global co-head of investment banking.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management appointed Camille Menasco Alexander to the newly-created role of senior director of business development while Drew Berreth was hired to join the DC office as a senior mortgage banking officer. 

Alexander, with 20 years' industry experience, started in mid-June and reports dually to Susan Traver, Washington regional president, and Garrett Alton, regional sales manager for the Mid-Atlantic and Central regions. Prior to joining BNY Mellon she was an institutional consulting director with Graystone Consulting. Before that, she was regional director of institutional advisory solutions for Bank of America. 

Berreth, who joined the firm in early June, reports to managing director Erin Gorman, national director for mortgage sales for BNY Mellon Private Banking. Prior to joining BNY Mellon he was a private mortgage banker with Wells Fargo and previously served as a licensed personal banker with Wachovia. 

JP Morgan hired six private bankers responsible for providing wealth management strategies to high net worth clients, endowments and foundations in Washington, DC.

Robin Burton, Eric Hothem, Michael Smith, Timothy Cooney, Andrew Leleck and Michael Marshall report to Sam Gottesman, head of HNW advisory for Washington, DC.

Burton, managing director and private banker, joined from Citi Private Bank, where she served as a managing director and private banker since 1995. In that role, she focused on serving law firms and senior attorneys.

Hothem, executive director and private banker, also joined from Citi Private Bank, where he too served law firms and senior attorneys. 

Smith, executive director and private banker, was previously director and head of the Scotland region for Société Générale Private Bank, before which he worked at Kleinwort Benson Private Bank and Merrill Lynch.

Cooney, vice president and private banker, joined JP Morgan after working in investment management at Loomis Sayles and Bessemer Trust. Before this, he spent three years as associate counsel in The White House, working on banking-related policy issues.

Leleck, vice president and private banker, latterly worked within Goldman Sachs’ private wealth management business, advising individual and institutional clients on investment strategies, trust and estate planning and generational wealth transfer.

Lastly, Marshall, vice president and private banker, joined JP Morgan after serving as advisor to Senator Bob Dole at the firm of Alston & Bird. There, he advised on matters including economic policy for Senator Dole and other corporate clients. 

New York-based Signature Bank brought in a private client banking team from HSBC, based in the Brooklyn, NY, area.

Leon Kratsberg and Gary Shulevich were appointed as senior vice president and group director, while Deborah Raffone was named senior client associate.

Kratsberg and Shulevich, who have worked together for eight years, will be based in Williamsburg, but the team will relocate to another private client banking office as the bank expands its presence in Brooklyn.

At HSBC, Kratsberg was most recently a senior relationship manager and vice president, serving large commercial clients throughout Brooklyn and Staten Island. Prior to that, he was a business relationship manager at JP Morgan Chase covering the Brooklyn area.

Miami, FL-based Cantor & Webb, the international tax and estate planning firm, hired Kathryn von Matthiessen as a trusts and estates partner.

Von Matthiessen, who relocated her practice from New York, will focus on personal and estate planning for high net worth individuals and the administration of complex estates and trusts. This includes advising international trust companies on reporting obligations concerning US matters.

Evercore is launching a private capital advisory business focused on secondary transactions for private funds interests, headed by two former UBS executives.

Nigel Dawn will oversee the private capital advisory business globally, while Nicolas Lanel will head the European operation.

Dawn was most recently managing director and global co-head of the private funds group at UBS.

Lanel was previously a managing director and global co-head of secondary advisory at UBS, where he led the expansion of the business into Europe.

The business will be majority owned by Evercore, with Dawn and Lanel among the key principals owning a minority stake.

The business is expected to launch during the second half of 2013, following the hire of additional professionals in North America and Europe.

Boston’s Hemenway & Barnes, the fiduciary family office law firm, hired Raymond Young as Of Counsel at its private client practice.

In the role, Young will be working with high net worth families and individuals, as well as businesses and non-profit organizations, involved in trust and estate administration or in disputes over wills and trusts.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management added four investment professionals serving high net worth clients in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Francis Schickling, Karin Kinney and James Lu joined the region’s portfolio management teams, and Jonathan Sprogell joined the private banking team. All are based in Philadelphia.

Schickling, who was appointed senior director of portfolio management and team leader in late June, has been in financial services for 28 years. He reports to Mark Haslam, managing director of portfolio management. Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Schickling was a senior relationship manager with Brown Brothers Harriman for 13 years and previously served with PNC Bank.

Kinney, a senior portfolio manager who has been in financial services for 30 years, joined BNY Mellon in February. She reports to portfolio team leader, Arnold Johnsen. Previously, Kinney was senior vice president of wealth and philanthropic advisory services at The Bryn Mawr Trust Company. Before that, she was a practicing attorney specializing in trusts and estates and nonprofits with McCarter English. 

Lu, a senior portfolio manager with more than 27 years of experience, started in BNY Mellon’s Family Wealth Group in April reporting to team leader Byron Clark. He previously worked with Abbot Downing, Wells Fargo’s multi-family office, where he served as senior portfolio manager. 

Sprogell joined BNY Mellon as a private banker in early June, reporting to Arthur Grugen, managing director, Mid-Atlantic private banking. With 34 years of financial services experience, he came to the firm from Citizen’s Bank, where he was a relationship manager. His expertise is in financial structuring and credit products. 

Russell Investments, the US-based asset manager, appointed Mark Schlafly as managing director of client solutions for the firm’s US advisor-sold business, which delivers mutual funds and other multi-asset solutions as well as growth programs, tools and insights to help advisors address investors’ goals.

Schlafly, with more than 25 years' experience in retail distribution, products and platforms, joined Russell in June this year, having previously served as chief executive and president of Financial Securities Corporation, as well as in executive positions at AG Edwards and LPL Financial.

In his new role, Schlafly is responsible for building and strengthening relationships with Russell’s strategic distribution partners, and for developing new partnership opportunities that align with the firm’s focus on offering outcome-oriented multi-asset solutions through financial advisor networks. Schlafly reports to Sandy Cavanaugh, CEO of Russell’s US advisor-sold business.

Atlantic Trust, the private wealth management division of New York-listed Invesco, hired David Van Blerkom as senior vice president and senior relationship manager in San Francisco, CA.

Van Blerkom will work with clients and their advisors to develop and implement financial and estate plans, as well as business development and overall client service for the San Francisco office.

He was previously the director of business development and investor relations at Inflective Asset Management. Before that, he spent around 16 years at Goldman Sachs & Co, most recently as vice president of institutional sales, managing the Western US region for the global convertible securities group. 

San Francisco, CA-headquartered Sanctuary Wealth Services added another client to its platform in the shape of Mirador Capital Partners, an investment management firm serving individuals, families and businesses.

Mirador works with clients who are saving for retirement, planning for education, growing a business, transferring wealth across generations and building a legacy through philanthropy.

Joining Mirador’s founder, Don Garman, is Jason Pfannenstiel, Carol Wikle, Dan Murray and Audrey Glafkides, who together have nearly 90 years of investment management experience and are latterly of Morgan Stanley.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Wealth Management confirmed the appointment of three financial advisors in Mount Kisco, NY, and one in Washington, DC, from Morgan Stanley.

In New York, Mary Tomkins has a production of $950,049 and assets under management of $110,457,000, while Addison Sherman and Angelo Mamone have $170,968,000 and $42,628,000 in AuM respectively.

Michael Abbenante joined Merrill Lynch in Washington with a production of $1,100,000 and $110,000,000 in AuM.

The Cayman office of the offshore law firm Appleby appointed investment funds specialists Jonathan Bernstein and Andrew Harding to its funds and investment services team.

Bernstein is a senior associate at Appleby and previously worked for Ogier.

He specializes in the formation, restructuring and termination of all types of Cayman Islands investment funds. 

Baird bolstered its private wealth management business with the addition of seven veteran financial advisors from Wells Fargo Advisors at its newest office in Houston, TX. 

The recruits are all legacy AG Edwards & Sons advisors who focus on the retirement planning needs of professionals in the oil and gas industries. Collectively, they have over 135 years of industry experience and oversee some $1.9 billion in client assets.

The Ashcroft Pesek Group is comprised of Richard Ashcroft, financial planning, managing director, and Darrell Pesek, director. Ashcroft and Pesek, who have worked together for 15 years, are joined by financial advisor-in-training Scott Bartosh, and client relationship assistant Kathy Ballew.

The Evans-Allain-Crumley Group consists of Greg Evans, financial planning, senior vice president; Stephen Allain, vice president; and Jerred Crumley. The group also includes client relationship assistant, Ligia Grijalva.

In other moves, John Barnefield, who joined AG Edwards & Sons as a financial advisor in 2001, and William Barrow, who has worked as an advisor for 30 years, were named vice presidents.

The Private Client Reserve of US Bank Wealth Management hired Steven Hobbs as a senior portfolio manager in Minneapolis, MN.

Hobbs will develop investment portfolios for high net worth individuals and institutions with investable assets of more than $1 million.

With more than 25 years in the financial services industry, Hobbs has experience in investment management and trusts, working with HNW individuals and families, and institutional clients.

Raymond James Financial Services, an independent broker-dealer subsidiary of Raymond James, recruited financial advisors Michael Brannam and Patrick Brannam at the Jacksonville, FL, branch of Raymond James & Associates.

The team, also known as Brannam Wealth Management of Raymond James, joined the firm from UBS, where they managed over $250 million in client assets and had more than $1.5 million in annual fees and commissions.

Chicago, IL-headquartered Ziegler, an investment bank and full-service brokerage firm, hired James Quinn as a senior vice president and branch manager at its Greenwood Village, CO, office.

Quinn has around 25 years of advisory experience and works with high net worth individuals. Specializing in the equity markets, he focuses on providing relative strength strategies to help clients with their wealth accumulation, preservation and legacy goals. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers US appointed a tax partner, tax principal and assurance partner in Missouri, MO.

Mike Baltzell, a tax partner, has over 14 years of experience providing tax compliance and consulting services to privately-held companies, private equity groups and high net worth individuals. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Missouri and Illinois.

Brian Bernert, a tax principal, provides services in the areas of state and local income/franchise taxation, sales/use taxation and credits/incentives across the US. He is licensed to practice law in Ohio.

Sean Toohig, an assurance partner, serves clients in the financial services sector. He has over 16 years of experience in the financial services industry serving banking, capital markets, broker-dealer and asset management firms. 

Citibank appointed Gary Reiner, operating partner at General Atlantic, and James Turley, former chairman and chief executive at Ernst & Young, as independent board directors.

Reiner has been the operating partner of General Atlantic since 2010, before which he was the senior vice president and chief information officer of General Electric Company - a position he held since 1996. Prior to General Electric, Reiner was a partner at The Boston Consulting Group.

Credit Suisse appointed a former general counsel at Switzerland’s financial regulator to develop its tax compliance strategy, an important issue for the Alpine state's banks in recent years amid wrangles with the US.

Urs Zulauf, former general counsel at FINMA, “will be supporting Credit Suisse in further developing and implementing its business policy regarding the tax compliance of client assets”, the bank said.

Nashville, TN-based wealth management firm Truxton Trust appointed Miles Kirkland as vice president and portfolio manager.

He joined from Mastrapasqua Asset Management in Nashville, where he was principal and portfolio manager, focused on stock selection and portfolio management for style-based portfolios including: Large-cap growth equity, large-cap core equity, small-/mid-cap core equity and equity income.

RBC Wealth Management, part of Royal Bank of Canada, welcomed the Levy Tebeleff Group to its Parsippany office in New Jersey.

The Levy Tebeleff Group joined RBC Wealth Management from Morgan Stanley , where they had spent their entire financial services careers. The team is made up of Allen Levy, first vice president, financial advisor, who has 14 years' experience within the finance sector, and Steven Tebeleff, first vice president, financial advisor, who joins with 19 years of industry experience. 

Strategic Wealth Advisors, the El Paso, TX-based wealth management firm, appointed Agustin Montes as partner and director of credit and debt management.

Montes joined the firm after spending 15 years in the commercial banking industry, most recently as head of Weststar Bank’s professional and executive lending. He also spent 10 years with JP Morgan.

International law firm Withers appointed eight new partners across the firm’s international offices, while at the same time the firm, which has its oldest roots in the UK, has elected a US citizen as global chairman for the first time.

Withers Bergman - the name of the firm in the US - announced that Ivan Sacks was named as chairman; he succeeds Anthony Indaimo, who stepped down after having served the maximum two terms allowed under the firm's rules. Prior to this week, Sacks was the US regional senior partner and managing director of the firm’s New York office. He is a private client lawyer and trusted advisor to international and domestic families of significant wealth.

Sacks joined Withers as a partner in 2003. Since that time, he has led the development of the firm’s Latin American practice. Both in the US and in an international context, he counsels leading families and entrepreneurs on the structuring of their closely held business interests, family offices and charitable foundations, the design and administration of trusts and estates, and comprehensive risk management, governance and succession planning.  He also frequently advises banks and trust companies on fiduciary matters.

Meanwhile, the firm named a number of new partners; with these appointments the law firm has 112 partners dealing with areas such as corporate finance, legal risk management, financial services regulatory and wealth structuring. 

In the US, Chi-Yu Liang is now a partner for the tax and estate planning team, New York, while Shannon Smith Retzke has been appointed to the tax team in New Haven.

In the Asian offices, Stacey Devoy was made a partner for the family law team in Hong Kong; in Singapore, Fernando Gandioli made partner for the tax and estate planning team, while Philip Munro was appointed to the funds, investment and business tax team.

Lastly, Kate Landells is now a partner for the family law team in London, while her colleagues Stephen Richards and Ceri Vokes have been appointed to the contentious trusts and succession team, and the funds, investment, trust and tax team, respectively.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management hired Dennis Crowley as a financial advisor in Wilmington, DE.

Crowley joined from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he spent the last ten years.

Los Angeles-headquartered Wedbush Securities added Michael Menefee to its private client services group as vice president, investments.

Menefee has around 12 years of wealth management experience and specializes in risk assessment, asset allocation and retirement planning.

Menefee will continue to serve his existing clients, reporting to John Wilkinson, vice president and manager of the Dallas, TX, office.

Webster Private Bank recruited Timothy Throckmorton from Wells Fargo Private Bank as senior vice president and director of fiduciary services, based in Hartford, CT.

Throckmorton will oversee and help to expand the personal trust and estate administration business. He will also work on enhancing the private bank’s investment management and fiduciary administration platform.

Throckmorton previously served as chief philanthropic officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank in Doylestown, PA. Prior to that, he was a philanthropic market executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and chief trust officer at Merrill Lynch Trust Company in Pennington, NJ.

The brokerage firm Stifel, Nicolaus & Co added Bruce Gould from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management to its New York-based private client group, Reuters has reported.

Gould managed $374 million in client assets at Morgan Stanley and joined Stifel's Garden City office as a senior vice president of investments.