LPL lands another big IT exec

LPL is staffing up its technology and operations roster. The firm announced today that Donie Lochan has joined the company as an executive vice president. He will head up several critical teams within LPL's Business Technology Services unit. Mr. Lochan will be based in San Diego and report to Victor Fetter, who recently joined LPL Financial as chief information officer and managing director of BTS. In an interview Friday with InvestmentNews Mr. Fetter said that while it would be a stretch to refer to Mr. Lochan as LPL's technology number two, the firm has many other talented high-level technology executives, his hiring does reflect how seriously LPL is taking its planned platform enhancements. Though it is his first full-time position with an independent broker-dealer, Mr. Lochan can claim more than two decades of experience in the realm of business and financial services technology. He arrived at LPL from a stint as a partner in Bain & Company's Global Financial Services Practice; prior to that he was a partner at Ernst & Young, serving as global head of its wealth management group. Within LPL's BTS unit Mr. Lochan will oversee the areas of risk management, audit compliance, business continuity and disaster recovery planning, and information security — a fairly full plate by any measure. In our interview, when asked what his priorities are Mr. Lochan said he could not yet go into a lot of specifics — his first day was 2 January. That said he did have some general ideas. “I want to help expedite LPL's plans for ongoing innovation, we have a solid, cohesive set of offerings and I want to see us build on those,” he said. “I am getting excited about enhancing the depth and capabilities of those applications we have now, in addition to expanding the platform in those areas advisers are most seeking from us as well,” Mr. Lochan said. Other related stories: Technology said to be impetus behind LPL-Fortigent deal LPL to unveil technology push; Effort convinces firm's top adviser to stay put LPL latest to deploy social-media archiving system; Independent broker-dealer selects Erado's API-based archiving, tracking and post-review tool Data theft puts LPL clients at risk