Ten months after the death of its former chief executive, wealth management firm Rockefeller Financial today hired Reuben Jeffery III, a former government official and
Goldman Sachs' executive, as its chief executive.
On Sept. 7, Mr. Jeffery will take over the post, replacing James McDonald, who last September committed suicide at the age of 56.
To some industry observers, the firm — which changed its name earlier this year from Rockefeller & Co. to Rockefeller Financial to help clarify what it does — took a long time searching for new leadership. But the board likely was right to be patient, said Tom Livergood, chief executive of the Family Wealth Alliance, a family office consulting concern.
“They spent a lot of time getting it right,” Mr. Livergood said. “They had the luxury of time. They have had excellent leadership in [president and chief operating officer] Austin Shapard, ever since Jim McDonald's tragic passing.”
Mr. Jeffery will oversee Rockefeller's four business groups: Rockefeller Wealth Advisors, Rockefeller Asset Management, Rockefeller Capital Partners and Rockit Solutions. The 125-year-old firm, partly owned by French bank Société Générale SA, and originally formed to handle the Rockefeller family fortune, has $25 billion in assets under administration.
Mr. Shapard will remain president and COO.
“I found this to be a really exciting opportunity,” Mr. Jeffery said in an interview, adding that he had always expected to come back to the private sector.
“The Rockefeller name is an iconic brand, a name that's known worldwide for all the right reasons,” he said. He said that given the difficult market environment, and the “erosion of
trust” among clients, Rockefeller, with its “open source kind of platform,” is uniquely positioned to continue to gain market share in the wealth management industry.
“I don't underestimate the challenges ahead, but there's absolute no doubt in my mind that Rockefeller Financial can go toe to toe with any firm out there,” he said.
Most recently, Mr. Jeffery, 56, was a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and previously was under secretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs.
Before his time at the State Department, Mr. Jeffery was chairman of the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and he spent 18 years at
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where he was managing partner of the firm's Paris office as well as its European Financial Institutions Group in London.
