Gary Bender, senior vice president of broker-dealer recruitment for Securities America, an advisory group B/D, has left the firm after seven years. He was previously senior vice president of acquisitions and retention at Woodbury Financial, a subsidiary of Another Advisory Group.
The departure follows other recruiters, including Greg Johnson, executive vice president of recruitment and revenue acquisitions at the advisory group, who left the firm last year. Johnson joined the Carson Group last October as director of national sales, and has since brought on a few collaborators from Security America, including Scott M. Briganti, who was at IBD for 22 years, most recently as Vice President of Branch Office Development. At Carson, he is serving as Vice President of Partnership Development.
Following Johnson’s departure, the advisory group hired Kristen Kimmel, former head of consultant recruitment and field marketing at RBC, to take on her responsibilities as well as an expanded role. Kimmel was named one of WealthManagement.com’s Ten to watch in 2022.
As of press time, Bender did not return a request for comment.
gary bender
“Gary’s departure comes as the company has made several key appointments over the past year, including Kristen Kimmel, EVP Business Development; Tim Hodge, EVP Services and Operations; and Clayton Chandler, Chief Security, Data and Privacy Officer, among others. between,” said Jane Roche, senior vice president of corporate content, communications and PR with the advisory group. “As the Advisory Group looks to the future, we thank Gary for his years of service and wish him the best of luck in his new role.”
Roche also recently joined, joining Assetmark, where she led marketing and communications.
The advisory group has seen some high-level departures recently. In January, Lori Love, who has led Advisor Group’s customer experience team since 2019, moved to focus on her family.
Last October, Securities America lost its CFO David Vaughan, who had joined Exos Clearing in a similar role.
In September, the advisory group lost chief marketing officer Susan Theder, who joined the advisory marketing platform FMG Suite, which powers the advisory group’s MyCMO offering, as CMO and chief experience officer.
