Hightower Advisors is launching a centralized investment management platform and hiring State Street alum Randy Bullard to lead it.
According to the firm, the new platform will use institutional research and investment counsel from the recent Hightower acquisition of NEPC (last October, Hightower purchased a majority interest in the institutional consulting firm and outsourced chief investment officer).
Bullard is joining Hightower for the newly created role from his position as global head of wealth at State Street. CEO Larry Restieri said Bullard is “uniquely positioned” for the job, “as he’s spent his career building next-generation platforms for the world’s largest wealth management organizations, from major wirehouses to custodians.”
The platform will be available to all of Hightower’s advisor practices to help streamline private wealth advisors’ forays into private markets while focusing on clients’ questions and demands.
Bullard and his team will get additional help from Chief Investment Strategist and Portfolio Manager Stephanie Link, who runs an equity portfolio within the firm’s Investment Solutions Group with $5.4 billion in managed assets. Link joined Hightower in 2020 after stints at Nuveen and as a CNBC contributor, and provides outsourced CIO services, model portfolios, separately managed accounts, investment research and due diligence for Hightower advisors.
In July, Hightower hired former Osaic executive Scott Hadley for the newly created chief advisory officer role, which will lead growth and practice management support for advisors. Additionally, Hightower promoted Scott Holsopple to chief strategy officer (overseeing strategy and internal and external M&A) and Jenn Anderson to chief marketing officer.
In February, Hightower announced that CEO Bob Oros would step down. Oros joined Hightower as CEO in 2019, following stints at Charles Schwab, LPL Financial and Fidelity. Under Oros’ tenure, the business grew drastically from $57 billion to $1.8 trillion in assets under advisement. Oros stayed on as a board member.
Restieri joined Hightower from a seven-year stint as CEO of Goldman Sachs’ Ayco business, which specializes in workplace financial planning and advisory services, as well as various wealth and asset management positions at Goldman spanning two decades.
#Hightower #Launches #Investment #Platform #Hires #Bullard