New Hire Roundup: Christian Named FiNet President

Westwood, Mass.-based New York Life Retirement Plan Services has added Arthur Georgantas to its client relationship team. He has been appointed vice president, senior relationship manager in the Taft-Hartley market and reports to Taft-Hartley practice lead James Byrne.

With 25 years of industry experience, Georgantas spent a combined six years as a Taft-Hartley relationship manager for Putnam Investments and most recently Mercer.

American Century Adds Peter Cieszko to Management Committee

American Century Investments announced Tuesday that Peter Cieszko, who joined the company in August, has been named to the firm’s management committee. With the new title of chief client officer—Americas, he will report to Jonathan Thomas, president and CEO, and have responsibility for all North and South American sales and distribution activities in the institutional and financial intermediary channels. He will continue to work with institutional and intermediary sales leadership. Cieszko and Michael Green, head of international business, will continue to work collaboratively on a coordinated global sales and distribution strategy.

Cieszko joined from Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Co., where he served as president of the business unit that provides investment management services to financial institutions. Prior to that, he was president and CEO of Evergreen Investments. He joined Evergreen from Legg Mason. Throughout his 25-year financial services career, Cieszko has held various senior leadership positions with Nuveen Investments, Montgomery Asset Management, E.F. Hutton & Co., and Merrill Lynch.

Citi Private Bank Welcomes Stephen Baird

Citi Private Bank announced that Stephen Baird has joined the firm’s Houston office as director and ultra-high-net-worth private banker, reporting to Russ Labrasca, head of the Houston office.

Baird joins from J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Management, where he was most recently an executive director and private banker in the Houston office. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan in 2009, he spent six years as a director and portfolio strategy consultant at UBS, covering the south central region made up of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. Earlier he worked as a mortgage banker and as a corporate banker at SunTrust in Atlanta.

Citi Private Bank Adds Becker in Denver

Citi Private Bank announced that Brian Becker has joined the firm’s Denver office as director and ultra-high-net-worth private banker, reporting to Mark Connally, southwest region executive.

Becker joins from J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Management, where he was a vice president in the firm’s Denver office. Previously, he spent three years at Bernstein Wealth Management in Denver.

Later in the summer, the Denver office will also welcome Steve Logan and Jeff Briggs, the former as managing director and head of the office and the latter as managing director and ultra-high-net-worth private banker.

Read the May 30 New Hire Roundup at AdvisorOne.