- Elizabeth Kittner was appointed CFO and MD of Leelyn Smith, a tax, accounting, and wealth advisory firm. She most recently was CFO and people operations leader for a technology research and consulting firm. Kittner has excelled across industries, including public and private companies, non-profit organizations, and public accounting, with a focus on technology-driven transformations.
- Neeraj Singh was appointed CRO of M&T Bank, effective January 31. Singh will succeed M&T’s current CRO, Mike Todaro, who is retiring. Singh joins M&T Bank from USAA, where he served as CRO and a member of the executive council responsible for overseeing all financial and non-financial risks and compliance. He will be responsible for overseeing M&T Bank’s risk management strategies and governance. Prior to his work at USAA, Singh held risk management leadership roles at Citigroup, TD Bank, and Barclays. Singh will become a member of M&T’s erxecutive leadership team, reporting to René Jones, CEO & Chairman, and Bob Sadler, Chairman of the Board of Directors Risk Committee.
- Kristi Vassak was promoted to managing partner and COO of Lenox Advisors, Inc., a wealth management and insurance advisory firm and affiliate of NFP, an Aon company. Vassak joined the firm in 2005 and most recently led its business and strategic solutions division.
- Bill Scheuerer was added as a managing director by Houlihan Lokey in its capital markets group. Scheuerer will support the firm’s private capital financing efforts across all industry verticals. He joined after eight years at Lazard, where he most recently was a managing director in its capital solutions group. Prior to Lazard, he was in the debt capital markets group at Cowen and Co.
- David Farkas was appointed managing director by Macquarie Capital, a corporate advisory, capital markets and principal investing arm of Macquarie Group, aiming to drive its aerospace, defense and government services advisory practice. Farkas has nearly 20 years of experience across the aerospace and defense industry, both in M&A and as a corporate executive. Farkas previously held senior leadership positions at Honeywell International, and he served as the senior executive for M&A and business development at GE Aerospace.
- LPL Financial LLC has transitioned the wealth management business of Wintrust Financial Corp to LPL’s Institution Services platform. The integration involves approximately 90 advisors managing about $16B in assets. On January 25, $15B of brokerage and advisory assets were onboarded to LPL, with the remaining $1B expected to transfer over the next several months. The agreement, first announced in February 2024, aims to enhance Wintrust’s wealth management services by leveraging LPL’s platform capabilities, technology, and centralized support.
- Avantax Inc., a Cetera Holdings-owned tax-focused financial planning and wealth management firm, has acquired the assets of Sweeney Kovar, LLP, a wealth management and accounting firm affiliated with Avantax for nearly 25 years. Founded in 1984 by Kevin M. Sweeney and Joseph C. Kovar, the firm’s wealth management business had approximately $180M in assets under administration as of September 30, 2024. Kovar and the firm’s staff of 12 became Avantax employees as part of the transaction.
- FinTech Automation, LLC announced the launch of its DeFi Exchange clearing & settlement service (DEX Clearing) in partnership with Austin Capital Trust Company, LLC (Austin Capital). Using FTA’s UniFi CORE system, Austin Capital will provide custody and agent services to DEX Clearing. FTA’s UniFi CORE system provides banks, credit unions, wealth management firms, and fintechs with integrated digital banking, wealth management and trading capabilities. It supports all asset classes, including cryptocurrencies and other alternative assets.
- Cetera Financial Group announced that Arco Capital Partners, a $287M practice formerly with Raymond James, has joined Summit Financial Networks, a community within Cetera Advisor Networks LLC. The firm is led by advisor and founder Robert Aiken.
- Logic Capital Management, a financial advisory firm managing over $400M of assets, has merged with Mission Wealth Management, LP. This merger marks the first partnership for Mission Wealth in 2025 and the largest integration for the firm to date. Mission Wealth has also add edLogic’s founder, Toby Whitby, and senior wealth advisor, Donnie Roberts, as the firm’s 50th and 51st equity partners. With the addition of Logic Capital Management, Mission Wealth expands its reach to over 3,900 client families nationwide and increases its total assets to over $10.6B.
- Orion, a wealthtech platform announced a collaboration with Snowflake, the AI data cloud company. The Snowflake technology will be available to a beta group of clients in Q2 with general availability to be announced later. The partnership expands client firm’s cross-cloud compatibility, allowing advisors to access and analyze real-time data within their own preferred systems and eliminating inefficiencies or the need to navigate new tools.
- Manulife Investment Management announced the third and final close of Manulife Forest Climate Fund LP1,2. Along with its affiliated offshore vehicles, the fund has closed with $480.1M in commitments. The fund prioritizes climate change mitigation through sustainably managed forests, aiming to sequester over 6 million tons of carbon dioxide over the fund term. The fund will look to deliver durable, high-quality carbon credits to investors and annual optionality for in-kind carbon credit distributions or offset sales.
- Madrona has closed two new funds totaling $770 million, the largest raise in its history. The Seattle-based venture capital firm will use Fund X and Acceleration Fund IV to support companies throughout their growth stages, focusing on applied AI, developer tools, cloud technologies, and AI-enabled biology across enterprise and consumer sectors. Fund X will prioritize pre-seed, seed, and Series A investments, while Acceleration Fund IV will target Series B and C rounds.
- Blue Sage Capital, a lower-middle market private equity firm, closed Blue Sage Capital IV LP at $618M including a substantial commitment from the general partner. The fund was significantly oversubscribed, closing above its initial target of $400M, initial hard cap of $550M and more than double its $300M prior fund size. As with prior Blue Sage funds, Fund IV focuses on investment partnerships with environmental services, niche manufacturing and specialty services companies in North America, particularly in Texas, the Southwest and the Midwest.
- EQT announced that EQT Growth, which aims to support tech companies, has co-led a $200M Series E in TravelPerk. The investment is also led by Atomico, with participation from Noteus Partners and Sequoia Capital, as well as existing investors, including Kinnevik, General Catalyst, Softbank Vision Fund, and Blackstone. The oversubscribed round brings TravelPerk’s valuation to $2.7B.
- WiseLayer, an AI fintech company that makes AI-powered digital workers for finance and accounting teams, announced $7.2M in funding. The round was led by Canaan Partners, with participation from K5 Global, The Fintech Fund, Unpopular Ventures, and industry angels.
- Glouston Capital has closed Glouston Private Equity Opportunities VII at $588 million, surpassing the $310 million collected for its previous flagship fund in 2020 and above its $450 million target. Glouston’s previous record fundraise was the $465 million Fund V it closed in 2016. The firm focuses primarily on secondaries, but also oversees equity buyouts, growth and co-investments in the North American market. Fund VII is already about 70% committed.
The post People and Company News, Week of January 31, 2025 appeared first on Connect Money.
