UBS Global Wealth Management has tapped industry veteran Jack Heiss as the firm’s market director for its Tampa, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, and Winter Haven offices in Florida. These offices are part of the firm’s Florida Wealth Management market, which is led by market executive Lane Strumlauf. Heiss brings 35 years of wealth management experience to his new role. Prior to joining UBS, he served as a financial advisor at Bank of America Private Bank. Heiss held multiple roles within Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch division. 

Hightower Advisors has tapped Scott Hadley to serve as the firm’s chief advisory officer. In this newly created role, Hadley will play a key role in growing the firm’s advisor base and leading strategic growth initiatives, and practice management support. Before joining Hightower, Hadley was the SVP of RIA solutions at Osaic Wealth. 

Monroe Capital, an asset management firm, has appointed Dimitri Stathopoulos to serve as head of institutional business development across the Americas region. Stathopoulos brings over two decades of experience to the position. He will oversee capital development across Monroe Capital’s investment strategies, including direct lending, alternative credit, structured credit, real estate, equity, and venture debt. Before joining Monroe Capital, Stathopoulos was the senior managing director and head of Americas at Nuveen. He previously held roles at Neuberger Berman and BMO Asset Management. 

Kevin McGinn, an accounting professional, has joined PKF O’Connor Davies, an accounting, tax, and advisory practice, as a partner in the firm’s tax division. McGinn brings more than two decades of experience to the role and will contribute to serving clients with a specialization in Architectural & Engineering, Construction, and Transaction Advisory Services. Most recently, McGinn was a principal at CliftonLarsonAllen, where he led tax engagements and developed tailored strategies for clients. 

Offerd, an AI-powered commercial real estate brokerage firm, has appointed Joseph Pucillo as its COO. Pucillo has held leadership positions at various real estate firms, including Divvy Homes, Truehold, Amherst Residential, Keller Williams, and Anywhere Advisors, which was formerly known as Realogy Brokerage Group. He has overseen more than $3 billion in real estate transactions. In his role, Pucillo will lead company-wide operations with a focus on recruitment, streamlining agent enablement, and preparing the organization for long-term capital markets investments. 

Mark Whyman has been appointed managing director for RIA and private market solutions at InspereX, a tech-driven fixed income and trading firm. In his role, Whyman will report to Deryk Rhodes, managing director and head of wealth management solutions. He will contribute to expanding the firm’s private markets platform in partnership with asset managers and technology providers and will work closely with independent broker-dealers and RIAs to identify investment solutions for their clients. 

New York City-based Maridea Wealth Management has acquired Chicago-based Pinnacle Wealth Management. Pinnacle Wealth, founded in 1994, is led by founder and financial advisor Brian Sheehy and offers “personalized” financial planning, wealth management, and investment strategies to high-net-worth individuals and families. The firm was affiliated with LPL Financial and will transition to Maridea’s independent RIA platform following the acquisition. 

Vie Ventures, a new life sciences investment firm, has launched. The firm, co-founded by veteran life sciences investors Steven St. Peter and Luke Evnin, aims to combine biotech venture investing with patient-centric, disease-focused philanthropy. The life sciences investment firm will invest in various venture capital investors and strategic partners, primarily in Series B and C-stage private biotech companies. 

Advisor360, a wealthtech platform, has unveiled its latest artificial intelligence capabilities for its virtual assistant, including voice-enabled functionality, enhanced practice-level and back-office analytics, to streamline data access and terminate manual reconciliation in real time for financial advisors. 

Advisor CRM, a software provider for financial advisors, has entered into a strategic partnership with SmartData, a data aggregation and prospect engagement platform. Financial advisors who use the Advisor CRM platform will gain access to capabilities that will further assist them with managing their clients’ information. The collaboration will allow advisors to eliminate manual entry, speed up the onboarding process, and instantly access client data, including portfolios, life and annuity policies, and external financial accounts.  

Masttro, an international wealth management platform for family offices, registered investment advisors, and wealth managers, has entered a strategic partnership with Arch, a private markets platform. The partnership will allow investors to manage their K-1s, alternative reporting, capital call workflows, and portfolio monitoring. Additionally, it will streamline investment data into Masttro’s next-generation platform, which will provide “enhanced” wealth visualization across liquid and illiquid assets and liabilities. 

Lorient Capital, a healthcare investment firm, has raised $500 million in its final round of funding for its Lorient Healthcare Fund III, beating its estimated target of $350 million. Lorient Capital aims to provide investments in healthcare providers, services, and technology companies. Since the firm’s inception, Lorient has completed 20 platform investments and over 75 acquisitions. 

Tailwater Capital, an energy and infrastructure private equity firm, has secured a $250 million investment from a single limited partner. The investment will expand the firm’s long-term strategy of investing in differentiated and compelling opportunities across the energy sector. The capital will support Tailwater E&P, which is the firm’s upstream platform, and will be deployed in connection with Tailwater E&P Opportunity Fund III. The Tailwater E&P Opportunity Fund is an oil and gas fund managed by Tailwater Capital, which launched in 2014. 

Thurston Group, a private equity firm focusing on healthcare investments, has raised $211 million in its final round of funding for Thurston Fund III, marking a 60% increase in its limited partner commitments compared to its predecessor fund, dubbed Thurston Fund II, which closed in 2022. The capital raised in its closing round marks the firm’s largest fundraise since 2018. Nixon Peabody served as counsel for the fund, and Praxess Securities served as placement agent for Thurston. 

Folio, a financial operations platform, has secured $14 million in a new Series A round of funding, which was led by Thrive Capital and Construct Capital, with participation from Redseed VC and SciFi VC. The capital will go towards assisting Folio to drive profitability at hotels and foster effective technology implementations.