New Hire Roundup: James Hanna Joins Genworth; Morningstar CFO Departs

Eversen joins with more than 25 years of experience in sales and marketing across the telecom, financial services and professional services industries. Most recently, she served as vice president, marketing for LexisNexis Marketing and Business Solutions, where she led the marketing function for the consumer-facing Lawyers.com website as well as B2B marketing of digital marketing and practice management solutions for law firms. Prior to this, she held marketing leadership positions with MasterCard Worldwide, and has also held various marketing and sales positions with AT&T. Lucena Research Names John Coulter EVP of Business Development

Lucena Research announced Monday that John Coulter, formerly president and CEO of Titan Trading Analytics, has been named Lucena’s EVP of business development. There he will lead sales and marketing efforts of the company’s QuantDesk platform and Quant for Hire, an on-demand quantitative analysis professional service.

Coulter brings more than 20 years of financial technology sales and marketing management experience. He previously held executive management positions at early-stage financial technology companies including Ease TRIAD, Vhayu and Javelin Technologies, where he was president and chief operating officer. Each firm was acquired by a major public company in the financial services industry; many of the software products are still actively used by brokers, hedge funds and asset managers.

Pioneer Investments Appoints Jon Bailie Head of Western Europe, Latin America

Pioneer Investments announced Monday the appointment of Jon Bailie as head of western Europe and Latin America. In this role, he will lead Pioneer’s distribution efforts for all of Western Europe as well as its growing presence in Latin America. Bailie, who will join the firm in April, will also be a member of the management committee, and will be based in London. He will report to Sandro Pierri, CEO, who had continued to hold the position ad interim following his appointment as CEO in July.

With more than 25 years’ experience in the industry, Bailie joins from AXA Investment Managers, where he was global head of distribution and a member of AXA IM ‘s executive committee. Previously he spent 16 years at Russell Investments, where he held several senior roles: he headed the firm’s alternative investments business, held the role of managing director for partnerships and distribution alliances for the EMEA region, and led the institutional business across EMEA.

CLS Investments Appoints Brian Clark

CLS Investments LLC announced Monday the appointment of Brian Clark to regional vice president of sales, covering southern California, parts of Nevada and all of Utah. Clark, who is based in Los Angeles, will focus on strengthening CLS’s relationships with local broker-dealers and financial advisors.

Most recently, Clark worked for Nationwide as a regional vice president and marketFLEX specialist covering the western U.S. Prior to his tenure at Nationwide, he worked as a financial advisor, business development director and regional vice president for the Financial Network Investment Corp., AXA Distributors, Security Benefit Group and ING. He began his career as a design engineer with The Boeing Co.

Securities America Announces Officer Promotions

Securities America announced on Monday the following officer promotions for 2013:

Jim Heeney, who joined Securities America in June of 2007, has been promoted to COO and SVP. His responsibilities include overseeing sales supervision, operations and product due diligence. Heeney is responsible for implementing strategies, processes and systems to supervise the sales activity of the firm’s registered representatives and investment advisors.

Paul Lofties, who joined in 2003 as an advisory services consultant with Securities America Advisors, has been promoted to SVP of wealth management. The wealth management department was founded under his leadership and merged with the product distribution department in 2009. Lofties will now become a member of the executive leadership team.

David Vaughan Jr., has been promoted to vice president of finance. He joined in 1994 and has worked progressively larger roles in accounting and finance during that time. He assumed leadership of the finance department in November 2011, and in 2012, assumed leadership of the accounting and compensation teams. He will now become a member of the executive leadership team.

Craig Zimmerman has been promoted to vice president of operations. He joined in 2011 after 17 years in the financial services industry. He is responsible for the daily support and workflow for all operations department functions: account processing, maintenance, cashiering and fees, brokerage services and trading. He is also involved with strategic operations initiatives focused on delivering the best possible advisor experience.

New York Life Announces Senior Executive Promotions in Insurance Group

New York Life announced Monday that Annamaria Banaszek, Craig DeSanto and John DiRago have been elected senior vice presidents of the company, reporting to Chris Blunt, president of the insurance group.

As head of the group’s wealth management department, Banaszek is responsible for wealth management and investment advisory services, including Eagle Strategies. She joined in 2001 as a director in the finance area of New York Life Investments and held several roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to joining, she held progressively more responsible roles at Coopers & Lybrand, Citibank and Deutsche Bank.

DeSanto is responsible for the group’s life insurance product management. He also oversees the group’s life insurance product development and implementation, and manages the company’s in-force product lines. He joined in 1997 as an actuarial summer intern in the financial management department and returned to the company in 1998 as an actuarial assistant in the individual life department. He held multiple roles with increasing responsibility, and was named corporate vice president in 2007.

DiRago is responsible for leading the group’s service department, overseeing approximately 2,100 new business and customer service professionals across the country. He joined in 1990 in the individual policy services department, has held numerous service positions with increasing management responsibility and was elected first vice president in 2010.

Foster Group Announces Organizational Changes

Foster Group Inc. recently announced that its founder and CEO, Jerry Foster, has assumed a new role as chairman of the board. He will serve in an advisory and accountability role, and also will function as a mentor to the firm’s key leaders. In addition, the firm announced that Mark Stadtlander, its longtime president, has assumed the role of CEO. Three additional leadership changes were also announced. Travis Rychnovsky has been named COO; Buck Olsen is now chief marketing officer; and Kent Kramer is CIO.

In addition, four employees were named shareholders in the firm: Travis Rychnovsky, COO; Ross Polking, COO of Foster Group’s Omaha office; Joe Bantz, lead advisor; and Brad Rempe, lead advisor. Katie Lauer of the firm’s client services team is now an associate advisor.

The new roles became effective Jan. 1.

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Read the Jan. 9 New Hire Roundup at AdvisorOne.