New tech lead at LPL Financial

LPL Financial LLC has hired a new technology leader. The firm announced Thursday the appointment of Victor Fetter as both chief information officer and managing director of the company's Business Technology Services unit. He will be based in Charlotte, NC but starting Monday is heading out on the road to visit clients, customers and advisers around the country. “I'm going to spend some time looking at the systems and deciding which areas we most need to target and prioritize,” Mr. Fetter said in an interview with InvestmentNews. “It is a blend of things when transforming the operations in an organization — people, architecture, and systems — and putting it all together,” he said. Mr. Fetter spent the past five years at computer hardware manufacturer Dell Inc., where he ran the company's online efforts. In his new role Mr. Fetter will report directly to LPL Financial chief executive Mark Casady. He will also serve as a member of the firm's Executive Management Committee. “That's what appealed so much to us with Victor, his breadth and diversity of experience and creative problem solving — and not just with technology but in building the right human infrastructure,” said Mr. Casady, who was also on the line. He said that while traditionally a lot of money and effort at LPL had been focused on application development there would be additional emphasis placed on both technology infrastructure and research and development. “We plan to substantially increase technology spending in 2013 and increase our technology staffing by roughly 50% between now and the end of 2013; Victor is the key person to lead that effort,” said Mr. Casady. Included in those numbers are 60 open technology positions within LPL’s Business Technology Services unit. Most of these jobs will be based in LPL’s Charlotte technology offices with a few openings in San Diego as well. These are in addition to 38 positions filled in recent months over a period ending in November. Current chief information officer Chris Feeney, who has been with LPL for five years, will serve during the transition and retire sometime in early 2013, following a 30-year career in the financial services technology industry.