Envestnet beefs up leadership for financial ecosystem strategy

In addition to boosting operating expenses by $30 million this year, partly dedicated to building a digital financial wellness ecosystem, fintech giant Envestnet has beefed up its leadership teams by adding four new execs to its roster. 

The largest turnkey asset management platform, with $229 billion in assets under management, announced Wednesday new hires to the executive team including Mary Ellen Dugan as chief marketing officer and Farouk Ferchichi, chief data & analytics officer. New Envestnet leadership team hires include Jillian Munro, group head of data & analytics technology and Neel Ray, head of mergers and acquisitions. 

The new hires are another move by the TAMP to cement its newfound strategy to build a digital financial wellness ecosystem that curates, connects, and orchestrates everything that can impact a consumer’s financial life. 

The expectation of the ecosystem is to bring a smartphone-enabled experience to consumers where financial advisers are a part of the consumer’s financial life every step of the way, said co-founder and CEO Bill Crager during the fintech’s fourth quarter earnings call. 

As CMO, Dugan will work on streamlining marketing efforts between the multiple Envestnet business lines. Dugan has prior experience as a marketing leader of tech companies, serving as CMO of startup WP Engine, a WordPress digital experience platform; vice president of global marketing at Indeed.com and executive director of global brand and advertising at Dell Technologies. 

The second addition to the exec team, Ferchichi, will spearhead efforts to implement innovative business practices to align, scale and use data, analytics and artificial intelligence across Envestnet. Ferchichi previously served as chief data and analytics officer at USAA and as chief data officer and head of BI & analytics at Toyota North America. 

Both Dugan and Ferchichi will report to Envestnet President Stuart DePina. 

On the leadership team, Munro takes on the newly-minted role as head of data & analytics technology, reporting to Envestnet Chief Technology Officer Bob Coppola. She is tasked with aligning Envestnet’s data aggregator, Envestnet Yodlee, with the fintech’s wealth management side. 

Prior to joining Envestnet, Munro served as chief technology officer of the startup payments platform Spreedly. She was previously head of technology for Fidelity Digital AssetsSM, where she was responsible for Fidelity Investments' digital currency technology.

In addition to overseeing M&A activity, new hire Ray will work across all Envestnet business lines to advance the fintech’s corporate development. He reports to Chief Strategy Officer Rich Aneser. 

Prior to joining Envestnet, Mr. Ray served as managing director at TD Ameritrade, leading the firm's fintech investing practice. He has also held leadership positions at Merrill Lynch, where he served as vice president of strategy and business development, and TIAA-CREF, where he was senior director of M&A and corporate development.

Ray marks another TD Ameritrade executive to leave the firm after Charles Schwab closed its acquisition of TD Ameritrade in October. Envestnet’s Head of Strategic Development, Dani Fava, left her role as head of innovation at TD Ameritrade in July to join the TAMP. 

"By continuing to invest in our people and resources across the C-suite, data and analytics, M&A, and marketing, we are positioned to deliver the future framework of financial intelligence and advice within a unified, hyper-personalized ecosystem," DePina said in a release.    

Envestnet’s footprint already includes more than 13 million investor accounts, 106,000 advisers, 600 fintech companies, and more than 35 million paid subscribers. The TAMP already expects to surpass $1 billion in revenue for the first time during the first quarter as a result of the fintech’s accelerated investments in the financial wellness ecosystem, according to the fourth quarter earnings release.