Retirement Industry People Moves

Cruz Joins Ameritas as Senior Vice President, Retirement Plans

Ameritas named Orlando Cruz as senior vice president, retirement plans, effective June 3. He replaced Jim Kais, who moved to Equitable in April to be head of group retirement.

Cruz, a 30-year retirement and wealth management executive, was most recently senior vice president and chief growth officer for MissionSquare Retirement, where he led the firm’s defined contribution business.

He also was president of broker/dealer and registered investment adviser firm MissionSquare Investment Services. Earlier, he served as president of MetLife Securities Inc. and as president of Voya Financial’s retail retirement investor channel.

Reese to Serve as Next Aon CFO

Aon, a global professional services firm, appointed Edmund Reese as executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective July 29. In this role, he will be responsible for the firm’s finance function and capital allocation strategy.

Reese will join Aon, July 1, to succeed Christa Davies; she will certify second-quarter 2024 results and then transition as a senior adviser to the firm to her retirement.

Pending CFO Reese joins from Broadridge Financial Solutions, having been CFO there since 2020. He moved to Broadridge from American Express, where he last served as senior vice president and CFO of its largest business unit, the Global Consumer Services Group.

“As our next CFO, Edmund will further enhance our focus on top- and bottom-line growth, disciplined capital allocation, and portfolio management to deliver positive outcomes for our clients, colleagues and shareholders,” Greg Case, CEO of Aon, said in a statement.

Aon recently acquired retirement, insurance and wealth advisory NFP, which continues to operate under its brand name.

Ascensus Restructures Sales Team

Continuing its retirement-related restructuring, Ascensus made several leadership changes within its retirement sales team, effective May 25.

Anthony Bologna was promoted to a newly created role of national sales director. Bologna has been with Ascensus for over 25 years and will oversee leadership of retirement sales across field-based and internal operations. He was most recently division vice president, Eastern region. Jeff Simes, meanwhile, was promoted to Bologna’s former position. He joined Ascensus in 2018 as regional vice president, Northeast.


Mickie Morley, in turn, took Simes’ place, assuming responsibility for Eastern Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. She joined the firm in 2019 in internal sales.

Jim Walker, previously director, internal sales, has taken a newly formed role as head of enablement in core retirement. Walker, with Ascensus since 2019, will report to Head of Core Retirement Jason Crane and will focus on “accelerated delivery of data and analytics-driven insights used to optimize deployment of resources,” along with governance and organizational readiness.

Finally, Russ Winchester will take Walker’s prior role overseeing the internal sales consultant team. He joined Ascensus in 2020 after leading sales teams at Newport, Transamerica and LPL Financial.

 

American Century Promotes Brett Hall to DCIO for Midwestern States

Kevin Eknaian, national sales manager, retirement, American Century Investments announced that the firm’s defined contribution investment only distribution team has promoted Vice President Brett Hall to regional retirement consultant for the central region.

Hall was previously a hybrid business development specialist at American Century. In his new position, he will cover Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan and report to Eknaian.

Before joining American Century, Brett was a retirement solutions associate at AllianceBernstein, where part of his coverage included Illinois and other parts of the Midwest. He has over 10 years’ experience in financial services and distribution in roles that span the advisory, recordkeeping and asset management industries.

Royal Bank Names Sanya as Head of US Asset-Management Unit

Royal Bank of Canada named Donald Sanya CEO of its U.S. asset management business, RBC BlueBay Asset Management.

In his new position, Sanya will work to strengthen ties with institutional clients, to grow assets via financial intermediaries, including registered investment advisers, and to raise awareness about fixed-income manager RBC BlueBay.

Sanya will replace Mike Lee, who is retiring at the end of July.

Sanya moved to the Royal Bank in 2014 from BlackRock Inc. He will report to Damon Williams, CEO of the bank’s global asset-management division, which is headquartered in Toronto and oversees $453 billion in assets.

“We’re seeing a lot of appetite for fixed income, just given that the interest-rate environment we have is such that investors are able to generate much more return on the fixed-income side,” Sanya said in a statement.

CFP Board Appoints Zajac and Mann to Managing Director Roles

The nonprofit CFP Board, which specializes in financial training and certification of certified financial planners, appointed two new managing directors to support the organization’s code of ethics and standards of conduct.

It promoted Adam Zajac to managing director of investigations and counsel to the head of enforcement. In the position, he will lead a team of attorneys and legal staff in the enforcement department. The division oversees investigations and provides counsel on program operations, strategy, and alignment with policies and procedures.

Since joining the board in 2009, Zajac has held various legal counsel roles and most recently served as director of investigations and counsel to the head of enforcement.

The board also appointed William Mann as its managing director of adjudication.  

Mann, who has 25 years of legal experience in financial services, will oversee the adjudication process in compliance with the CFP Board’s procedural rules, code and standards, fitness standards and sanction guidelines. He will serve as the lead legal counsel to the board’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission, managing all hearings, reviews and preparation of written orders.