People & Company News, Week of August 7, 2026

Remy Trafelet, executive chairman of Hazeltree, has been named chairman, president, and CEO, succeeding Lokesh Seth. Trafelet founded the treasury management and data solutions provider within Trafelet Delta Funds before spinning it out in 2011. He returned to active management in late 2024, leading a renewed focus on treasury services and data networking. Hazeltree also appointed Jessica Segarra chief operating officer. Segarra previously led global operations at Schoenfeld Strategic Advisors and served as deputy head of operations at Balyasny Asset Management. Martin Koopman joins as chief product officer after serving as chief product officer and co-head of AI at Broadridge Financial Solutions.

Lawson Smith has been named managing director for Valeon Partners, a merchant bank. Smith will be responsible for overseeing the firm’s market strategies. Prior to joining Valeon, Smith served as a managing director at Houlihan Lokey, where he founded the firm’s accounting and financial reporting practice group.

San Diego-based Blueprint Equity, a growth equity firm, has hired Kaila Russell as director of talent; Paul Koch as head of Artificial Intelligence; Torian Riley as senior associate of value creation; Jack Pimental and Travis Tung as associates; Grace Maloney as senior analyst; and Tyler Hibberd, Kylie Pitzak, and Oly Ugorji as analysts.

Michael Regan has been appointed to the boards of directors of Provident Financial Services and its wholly owned subsidiary, Provident Bank. Regan, who has more than 35 years of industry experience, serves as a senior bank examiner with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. There, he advised boards of directors and executive leadership teams on corporate governance, enterprise risk management, capital adequacy, liquidity oversight, and regulatory compliance.

Financial advisor Dawn Parks has joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer and RIA platforms. Parks was previously affiliated with Cetera Wealth Services, where she oversaw roughly $150M in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets. Parks is the owner and director of wealth management and planning at Sunny Day Financial and is based in the Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas area. Sunny Day Financial is supported by investment operations manager Karen Umpierre.

Kestra Financial also named John Milligan as head of operations. Milligan will oversee the firm’s core operational functions, including trading, cashiering, producer compensation and fee billing. He joins Kestra from Truist Bank, where he most recently served as EVP, head of capital markets operations. During his tenure at Truist, he led broker-dealer operations and helped guide the integration of SunTrust and BB&T’s brokerage businesses into Truist Investment Services.

Barbara Vanich has joined BRG’s Financial Institution Advisory practice as a managing director based at the firm’s office in Washington, D.C. Vanich will advise clients on accounting and auditing concerns. Prior to joining BRG, Vanich most recently served as the chief auditor at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Prosperity has appointed Brian Katz as chief investment officer. Katz will oversee the firm’s investment team, guide the strategic direction of portfolio construction and asset management across the organization, and lead market research initiatives. He will also work closely with firm leadership and other stakeholders to develop tailored investment solutions, strengthen the client experience, and support Prosperity’s continued growth. Prior to joining Prosperity, Katz held leadership roles at Focus Partners Wealth, BlackRock and Ares.

Kestra Financial has appointed Kristan Garner as head of client service. Garner will oversee advisor service, technology solutions, and account services, with a focus on elevating the experience for advisors and their clients. Before joining Kestra, Garner most recently served as director of operations at Fidelity National Information Services.

Perigon Wealth Management has expanded Rafia Hasan’s leadership role to include chief operating officer responsibilities. Hasan will retain her COO duties and will guide how the firm can align its platform around how advisors work and implement the structure to support growth. Hasan joined Perigon in 2023 as its chief investment officer. Chris Briley was named managing director of technology. Briley most recently served as chief technology officer at Manning & Napier. Beth Bosworth, who continues as head of financial planning, will oversee wealth management solutions available to Perigon’s advisors. Brian McGunnigle continues as director of operations and will continue to report to Hasan. Both Briley and Bosworth report to Hasan.

RIA Concorde has added Austin-based Grace Capital Management to its platform. The hybrid registered investment advisor offers investment advisory, tax mitigation, and financial and estate planning services. The firm was founded in 2004 by George Duff and manages about $110M in client assets. Through its affiliation with Concorde, the firm will provide securities solutions through Concorde’s broker-dealer platform and gain access to Concorde’s compliance, recruiting, and due diligence capabilities.

New Mountain Capital will be acquiring Jensen Hughes from Gryphon Investors. Jensen Hughes provides engineering and consulting services to facility owners, architects and engineers, and nuclear utilities. Upon closing, Dr. Hisham Mahmoud, senior advisor at New Mountain Capital, will serve as chairman of the board.

LPL Financial launched 17 Building Block Model Portfolios, expanding its model portfolio platform to more than 70 offerings as assets surpassed $100 billion in February. The models include mutual fund, exchange-traded fund, and separately managed account strategies across equities, fixed income, and alternatives. Advisors can use them independently or combine them within unified managed accounts to create portfolios aligned with clients’ objectives and risk preferences. CIO Marc Zabicki said the modular strategies offer advisors and institutions greater flexibility and choice.

Merrill Lynch has added a 14-person team from Morgan Stanley’s Graystone Consulting unit, where they oversaw more than $13B in total client assets. The team includes advisors Alfred Hammond, Matthew McLaughlin, Anthony Mancini, Peter Ciovacco, Scott Tobey, and Michael Egan. The team works with ultra-high-net-worth families, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and retirement plans.

SEI and WTW Investments expanded their partnership to develop private markets solutions for 401(k) and other U.S. defined contribution plans. The collaboration combines WTW’s investment research, portfolio implementation and due diligence capabilities with SEI Trust Company’s trustee, operational and administrative services for collective investment trusts. The firms aim to provide retirement savers with diversified sources of return through structures designed for defined contribution plans’ liquidity, governance and operational requirements. The companies are also designing additional products that could expand access to private credit and other alternatives.

RBC Wealth Management has added Florida-based The Focus Wealth Management, which was previously affiliated with UBS, where they oversaw about $1.5B in total client assets. The Focus Wealth Management team offers portfolio management and wealth planning to high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families. The seven-person team includes managing directors and financial advisors James “Trey” Mahoney III, Peter Foley Jr., SVP Justin Warzala, senior business associate Lori DeJesus, investment associate Will Garrett, and client associates Paula Echeverry and Thomas Cooper.

DWS converted the Xtrackers Municipal Infrastructure Revenue Bond ETF from passive index tracking to active management. The fund retains its RVNU ticker and will continue investing in municipal revenue bonds financing transportation, recreation, utilities, and industrial economic development. Principal and interest payments are backed by pledged revenue sources or revenue streams combined with general obligation pledges. RVNU will normally invest at least 80% of assets in securities issued by U.S. municipalities and territories. Income is exempt from federal income tax. DWS said RVNU is first actively managed municipal infrastructure revenue bond ETF listed on a U.S. exchange.

Simplicity Group has acquired Mobile Bay Financial Solutions, an independent financial advisory firm in Mobile, Alabama. Following the acquisition, Mobile Bay will operate as Simplicity Wealth Advisors: Mobile Bay. Mobile Bay executives John McNeil and Virginia O’Brien will become partners at Simplicity. The firm will gain access to Simplicity’s financial planning tools, investment strategies and back-office resources.

Prospera Financial Services, a boutique wealth manager overseeing $29B, has added Abound Advisors to its platform. Abound has offices in Boerne, Texas, and Redlands, California. Abound Advisors’ founder Chris Palmer has more than 27 years of experience, including over a decade as a senior vice president at Merrill Lynch. His team includes chief administrative officer Joan Hsu, chief operations officer Dana Palmer, and Amy Ochs, director of client experience.

Raymond James Investment Management has converted the Carillon ClariVest Capital Appreciation Mutual Fund into the newly launched RJ ClariVest Capital Appreciation ETF. RJCA ETF is managed by ClariVest portfolio co-managers Ed Wagner, Frank Feng, Amanda Freeman, and Todd Wolter.

Lexington Financial has adopted Advisor360°’s AI-native operating system as the Braintree, Massachusetts-based wealth management firm transitions to Cetera. Lexington Financial, founded in 1987, oversees about $608M in client assets and has four advisors. The firm worked with Cetera to retain Advisor360°’s platform and preserve familiar workflows, data continuity and the client experience. The unified technology combines customer relationship management, reporting, a client portaland document management, allowing Lexington’s advisors and staff to operate through one connected system during the transition.

Allspring Global Investments has partnered with Aiviq, a client data platform for the asset management industry, to build a global, enterprise-grade Client Book of Record platform. The system will consolidate client assets, investment flows, and sales attribution across Allspring’s distribution business, giving the firm a single, reconciled view of client activity worldwide. The platform is designed to give distribution, finance and operations teams more consistent access to client data, supporting stronger data governance across the organization.

Gryphon Investors, a lower-middle-market private investment firm, has raised $770M in the closing round for Gryphon VI Top-Up Co-Investment Partners, succeeding its targeted goal of $650M. The oversubscribed fund will invest in new portfolio companies alongside Gryphon’s flagship fund Gryphon VI, which makes equity investments across consumer, healthcare, industrial growth, and technology solutions and services companies.

Pie, an AI-backed growth platform, has secured an undisclosed investment from Amex Ventures, the corporate venture capital unit of American Express. The investment will go towards boosting the expansion of its platform for small businesses.

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