AXA Advisors vice chairwoman Christine Nigro to leave

The No. 2 executive at AXA Advisors, vice chairwoman Christine Nigro, will leave the firm in the middle of the year to pursue other opportunities, according to a memo issued this month by the firm's chairman, David Karr. A 2017 InvestmentNews Women to Watch honoree, Ms. Nigro joined the firm in 2006 and "has been particularly instrumental in transforming the broker-dealer to where it is today," according to the memo. AXA Advisors is one of the largest independent broker-dealers in the industry, with 4,375 advisers producing $727.5 million in total revenue in 2016, the most recent year the firm reported its data to InvestmentNews. Mr. Karr's memo also gave more details about AXA's shift of operations to Charlotte, N.C., which was first announced last May. At the time, AXA said it planned to add 550 jobs over the next five years and would spend $18 million on the expansion. AXA's broker-dealer team in Jersey City, N.J., will move to Charlotte, according to the memo, while operations and compensation groups will be moved to Syracuse, N.Y., and join the existing operations team already there. The transition will conclude next year. "As we announced in May 2017, AXA has had a presence in Charlotte for 40 years, so this is a logical outgrowth of our business needs," wrote Jennifer Recine, an AXA spokeswoman, in an email to InvestmentNews. "Charlotte provides an excellent and diverse talent pool from which we can draw for future expansion."