a woman entering a door of unknown mystery
iStock

Each week, we summarize notable moves across the financial industry.

  • Gary Brent, executive chairman, chief strategist and co-founder of HighView Financial Group, has retired after a six-decade career in the financial services industry. Before co-founding HighView in 2005, Brent was chairman and chief investment officer of RBC Global Private Banking. His career also took him to Canada Trust, as president and CEO of the investment management group, and TAL Private Management Ltd., where he was vice-chairman and CEO.
  • Kevin O’Sullivan has joined BMO Private Wealth as a senior portfolio manager after more than 12 years with RBC Dominion Securities. During his more than three decades in the industry, he’s also worked at Scotia Private Client Group as an international investment adviser, and at UBS.
  • Alain Desbiens has returned to BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM) after a year-long sabbatical as vice-chair, BMO ETF. Before his break, Desbiens had been with BMO GAM for 14 years, most recently as director, BMO ETF for Quebec. He has more than 25 years of financial services experience focused on sales.
  • Mike Coyne has been appointed general counsel at Manulife, starting Sept. 1. He succeedsJim Gallagher, who is retiring. Based in New York, Coyne has served as senior fellow & litigation strategy advisor at the Bank Policy Institute, and spent more than two decades at JPMorgan Chase & Co., including as senior vice-president, associate general counsel and global co-head of litigation.
  • Margaret Ryan has been named director of the division of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, effective Sept. 2. Ryan was a senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces from 2006 to 2020, and is currently a lecturer at Harvard University Law School. In a release, SEC chairman Paul Atkins welcomed Ryan to the role. “She brings to the commission decades of experience as a respected judge and practitioner of the law. She is fulfilling a critical role,” Atkins said. Sam Waldon, who has been acting director, will return to his previous role as chief counsel for the enforcement division.
  • J. Bradford Eichler, COO of Stephens Inc., has been nominated to the board of directors of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as large firm governor. Erin Baskett, CEO of Sine Qua Non Capital LLC, has joined the board as small firm governor.

If you know of people moves in the financial industry and/or would like us to consider your announcement, email Alisha Hiyate at alisha.h@newcom.ca.