Robbie Meakin joins from Kleinwort Benson where he has worked since in 2007 when the company established a product advisory team run by Natalie Merrens, a former colleague of his at UBS Wealth Management where he was a financial analyst.
At Kleinwort Benson he was a strategic wealth adviser and has now stepped up to become a private wealth director, alongside Adam Ross, at jonathanfry.
Ross joins from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management where he was an investment adviser running both advisory and discretionary mandates. He also has experience on the private banking side with Barclays and Coutts.
David Carr, jonathanfry’s chief executive, is particularly pleased that he has been able to recruit senior individuals from such well-established, high profile organisations.
“It is a sign that the big names are taking us seriously,” he said. “It is good that people of this calibre are prepared to work for a new and relatively unknown firm, hacked off as they obviously are with the waste where they were working.
“It is a big step for us and great validation of what we are doing to hire such impressive individuals.”
Carr added that when he and chief operating officer Adam Galache-Brown – the two both joined from Hazell Carr in early 2010 – bought into the firm they wanted things to bed in first but the intention was always to expand the adviser team.
Further expansion is planned, with a third senior hire working out his notice before joining in September.
“We want to digest these people before the second wave in perhaps a year’s time,” Carr explained.