Advisor360º, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for independent advisors spun out of Commonwealth Financial Network as an independent business in April 2019, announced four key new hires Monday.
A month after formal announcement of Richard Napolitano as CEO of the enterprise software company, the four seasoned executives joined the firm in key roles, including as chief people officer, head of engineering development, head of customer success and operations, and solutions architect.
A closer look at the background of three of the new hires and that of Napolitano finds several firms in common that are outside the typical advisory technology realm, especially that of the independent broker/dealer space. These include EMC; Plexxi Inc.; its acquirer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Pirus Networks; and its acquirer, Sun Microsystems.
Joining the firm are Meredith Crouse as chief people officer; Doug Wood as head of customer success and operations; Gilad Sade, who will head up engineering development (and answering to the CTO); and John Considine as solutions architect.
Wood, Sade and Considine all worked at a firm or three where each would have crossed paths with Napolitano.
Taken together, these hires suggest a firm looking to ratchet up its enterprise development in a bid to secure significant growth. This certainly backs up the company’s mission, signaled by Napolitano’s being formally named in June as CEO: "to scale the company and bring the Advisor360° solution to financial advisors and enterprises across the wealth management industry."
“Advisor360 is always looking for top talent; and as we prepare for the future, bringing this type of talent to our growing team is critical," Advisor360º president Darren Tedesco wrote in an email.
"We have a solid foundation of financial services experiences, and by adding enterprise technology gurus, we are not only expanding, but rounding out our team,” he said.
Advisor360° provides a suite of tightly integrated tools for advisors, including CRM, performance reporting, financial planning, trading, model management, rebalancing, operations, workflow, analytics, document imaging and a client portal. Its core was built over 20 years within Commonwealth under the direction of Darren Tedesco, who now serves as Advisor360°’s president.
A highly integrated, seamless, cloud-based platform is something many independent broker/dealers and RIAs looking to grow lack, making for a market opportunity.
