$580B RIA Wealthspire builds out C-suite following PE-backed unification

Wealthspire is rounding out its leadership ranks as the newly formed, Madison Dearborn Partners–backed RIA looks to knit together five legacy businesses and push harder into organic and M&A-driven growth.

The firm named an executive team that spans revenue, investments, finance, legal, people, technology, marketing, corporate development and dealmaking, alongside previously announced chief executive officer Mike LaMena and president Carl Nelson.

On the revenue side, longtime executive Mike Goss will serve as chief revenue officer and president of Wealthspire Institutional, which includes Wealthspire Retirement Advisory. In the dual role, he is charged with unifying the go-to-market strategy across private wealth, institutional advisory, retirement and business management to spur organic growth and cross-business referrals.

Brad Long was named chief investment officer, overseeing investment philosophy, portfolio construction and manager research across client segments. Brett Schneider will serve as chief financial officer, responsible for financial strategy, reporting and capital allocation.

The firm also tapped Veronica Moo as general counsel to lead legal, regulatory and governance work; Nataly Sogoloff as chief people officer to drive hiring, development and retention; and Steve Frampton as chief technology officer, heading platform modernization, data strategy, cybersecurity and advisor- and client-facing tech.

On the growth and brand side, Angela Giombetti was appointed chief marketing officer, focused on brand, lead generation and communications, while Brent Perkel will lead corporate development and enterprise planning. Chris DiMeo will head mergers and acquisitions, charged with building and executing a disciplined deal pipeline and integrating acquired firms.

“These appointments align our leadership bench with the scale and ambition of the firm we are building,” LaMena said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the group is expected to support “consistently excellent outcomes for clients” and new opportunities for employees.

Nelson said the firm’s priorities are “disciplined integration, service excellence, and robust organic growth,” and pointed to each leader’s “track record of building high-performing teams and executing with accountability.”

Wealthspire is also setting up dedicated leadership for each of its major business lines: US and Canadian wealth, institutional, retirement, and business management.

Beyond Goss on the institutional side, the firm named Eric Sontag president of Wealthspire Private Client, Doug Brown president and CEO of Newport Private Wealth, Chris Bucci CEO of Ground Control Business Management and Joel Shapiro president of Wealthspire Retirement Advisory.

The appointments come roughly a month after Madison Dearborn completed its acquisition of five NFP businesses from Aon to form Wealthspire, which oversees more than $580 billion in assets under management or advisement across North America.

That scale puts it in the same league as Overland Park, Kansas-based Mariner Advisors and Chicago-headquartered Creative Planning. Both of those mega-RIAs vaulted past the $500-billion mark in assets this year through supersized "merger of equal" transactions with RIAs that have books of business in the institutional and retirement spaces.

For its part, Wealthspire has already made its first step on the acquisition trail, quickly following its November launch with an agreement to acquire RoundAngle Advisors, a Red Bank, New Jersey RIA.