Mark Tibergien retiring from Pershing's RIA custody business

Mark Tibergien, who has led BNY Pershing’s RIA custody business since 2008, is retiring May 31 and will be replaced by another Pershing veteran, Ben Harrison.

The company announced the leadership change late Tuesday following an internal announcement earlier in the day.

Mr. Tibergien, 68, joined Pershing in the midst of the financial crisis after working as a consultant for Moss Adams. He was initially tasked with growing the custodian's RIA segment.

“I’ve been consulting on succession planning for eons, and when I joined Pershing that was one of the first things I began thinking about,” he said. “My intent at the time was to be here for only three years.”

In the nearly 13 years Mr. Tibergien was leading the RIA segment, Pershing’s custody assets grew from $50 billion in 2010 to $822 billion at the end of last year.

Mr. Harrison, 44, who joined Pershing in 2006 as a business development officer for the New York metro region, has spent his entire career working in the RIA custody business, including a stint with a predecessor to TD Ameritrade prior to joining Pershing.

For the past five years, Mr. Harrison has led Pershing's national business development team.

“It’s a really exciting time to be tapped for this role, and I’m looking forward to taking the business to the next level,” he said. “There’s so much going on in the marketplace and it really aligns with our strategy of being a business-to-business provider.”

In his new role, which he will assume on June 1, Mr. Harrison will report to Jim Crowley, CEO of Pershing, and will become a member of Pershing’s executive committee.

Mr. Tibergien, who will be the chairman of InvestmentNews’ Innovation Summit in New York on April 30, plans to sell his house in New York and move full time to Seattle, where he and his wife also have a home.

"We are tremendously grateful to Mark for all his contributions," said Mr. Crowley in a prepared statement. "Mark's unique vision and humble leadership has helped build our advisory business from the ground up and made Pershing one of the top players in the RIA custody space.”