Fidelity Institutional adds new head of client growth

Six months after Sanjiv Mirchandani left Fidelity Institutional as part of a buyout wave, the Boston-based financial services conglomerate is bringing on a new head of client growth.

Effective in January, Rohit Mahna will step into the role vacated by Mirchandani in June, when Fidelity Investments used buyout packages to thin its ranks by about 2,000 employees, or roughly 4% of its workforce.

Mirchandani, who had been at Fidelity for 27 years, was head of RIA custody and clearing when he took the retirement package.

A Fidelity spokesperson said Mahna’s title is slightly different, but the role is “essentially” the same as Mirchandani’s.

Mahna joins Fidelity from Salesforce, where he had been senior vice president and general manager of the company’s global financial services group since 2016. Mahna will lead the Fidelity Institutional client relationship group, comprising sales and relationship management teams, and will report to Mike Durbin, president of Fidelity Institutional.

Mahna worked at Salesforce for more than 10 years, overseeing the company’s global financial services practice spanning sales, marketing, partners, and product. Financial services has grown to be Salesforce’s largest industry practice.

Before joining Salesforce in 2011, Mahna worked as the financial services industry lead at IBM, a business consultant at Conchango (now Dell EMC), and a business analyst at TD Waterhouse.

“Rohit joins us at a time when the industry is evolving at an increasingly rapid pace,” Durbin said in a statement. “He brings to Fidelity a unique set of skills at the intersection of finance and technology and knowledge of that space which will benefit all of our clients.”

Fidelity Institutional serves 13,500 clients, including wealth management firms and institutions. It administers $4 trillion in assets and manages $967 billion in discretionary assets.