Kingswood has poached from Charles Stanley, Close Brothers and St James’s Place as it looks to round out its senior team ahead of acquiring more UK advice businesses.
Chief operating officer of Charles Stanley’s private client business Harriet Griffin will become Kingswood’s COO, while Close Brothers AM veteran Richard Bernstein steps up to become its chief risk officer.
Kingswood has also snagged Kirsten Owbridge from St James’s Place to lead its HR group.
Kingswood CEO says UK M&A imminent
The appointments come as Kingswood is on the cusp of acquiring more UK advice businesses in the coming months.
The wealth manager said it currently has “a number of significant transactions under exclusive due diligence” in the UK which, if closed successfully, would take the wealth manager up to over 200 employees across 20 offices in the UK and US.
Kingswood has £2.5bn in assets under management and 5,500 active clients.
Kingswood chief executive Gary Wilder said: “2019 was a milestone year for Kingswood as the growth capital from Pollen Street allowed the firm to capitalise on the consolidation opportunities available in the global wealth management market.
“We have already seen a strong start to the year, and with several imminent acquisitions in the UK, expect the business to grow substantially.”
New recruits
Griffin, whose appointment was alluded to in Portfolio Adviser’s interview with group CFO and platform CEO Patrick Goulding and head of wealth Leigh Philpot, joins after eight years with Charles Stanley where she also worked as operations and business development manager.
Before that she was a senior client relationship manager for the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment where she is also a chartered member.
Bernstein has more than 17 years’ experience in compliance and risk, working for F&C Asset Management (now BMO Gam), Barclays Private Client and most recently Close Brothers AM. He is a chartered fellow of the CISI and CFA charterholder.
In addition to Bernstein and Griffin, Kingswood has snagged Kirsten Owbridge from St James’s Place. Owbridge will slot into the newly created role of managing director of group HR where she will make sure the structure and resources of the business are aligned with its objectives, including performance targets and compensation.
She leaves SJP after just a year at the business as a senior HR business partner. Owbridge has also worked in HR for RBS, Lloyds and O2 UK and was a director of HR for solar energy company Sonnedix based in Tokyo and London.
