Industry moves this week

Each week, Advisor.ca summarizes notable moves across the financial industry.

• Alain Desbiens will retire from BMO Global Asset Management and the BMO ETF team on May 1. He initially joined BMO ETFs in 2010 as vice-president of sales for Quebec and Atlantic Canada, with a promotion in 2018 to a director position in Quebec. Desbiens has worked at other notable institutions such as CIBC and Fiera Capital throughout his decades-long career. In a LinkedIn post announcing his retirement, he called BMO ETFs a $100-billion franchise. Read more (in French) from Finance et Investissement.
• Katy Boshart will assume the role of president and CEO of Manulife Bank of Canada this week. She was most recently with Toronto-Dominion Bank where she worked for nearly 16 years total, with her last role being senior vice-president and head of the bank’s customer engagement platform. Manulife said in a release that Boshart will be the first woman to lead the company’s banking business, bringing with her decades of experience. As of fall 2023, Manulife Bank had more than $29 billion in assets with customers across Canada.
• Neil Ouditt has been named executive vice-president with Sterling Mutuals Inc. as well as president of Sterling Insurance Agency Ltd. Ouditt will focus on advisor relations, mentoring and recruiting, said an internal memo from CEO Nelson Cheng that was provided to Investment Executive. Rocky Ieraci, who is now senior vice-president, will also support independent advisors and has the added goal of working with industry partners to develop new services for advisors. Ouditt “will be Sterling’s primary ambassador to the advisor community,” the memo said. Ouditt was most recently a national managing director with Manulife Wealth, where he started as an advisor and brokerage manager and worked for nearly three decades. Cheng said the firm has a “very ambitious strategy” to boost its advisor support and become the “dealer of choice.”
• Fraser McEwen is tackling the new role of president with Timbercreek Alternatives, the recently launched alternatives business for Toronto-based Timbercreek Capital. McEwen will help expand the company’s product lineup for the wealth management, high-net-worth and family office channels, a release said. He co-founded Slate Securities, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Slate Asset Management, and has worked with firms such as GMP Securities and HSBC throughout his career.
• Parham Nasseri was named president of InvestorCOM Inc. last week, with responsibilities tied to regulatory strategy, marketing and product development, and customer relations. He first joined the firm in 2020 and has worked in the industry for 18 years, with ties to the Ontario Securities Commission, Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, and multiple other organizations.

If you know of other people moves in the financial industry and/or would like us to consider your announcement, email Katie Keir at katie@newcom.ca.

Katie Keir

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Katie is special projects editor for Advisor.ca and has worked with the team since 2010. In 2012, she was named Best New Journalist by the Canadian Business Media Awards. Reach her at katie@newcom.ca.