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

  • Michelle Connolly has joined Q Wealth Partners as head of advanced wealth planning, leaving Raymond James Ltd. after one year in a similar role leading financial planning and insurance solutions. Connolly has deep tax and estate planning, wealth management and financial planning experience in the industry, and previously held senior level roles with Wellington-Altus, Sun Life Financial and CI Investments.
  • Steve Reimer has joined Raymond James Ltd. as a senior portfolio manager and investment advisor. Reimer joins the firm from Richardson Wealth after more than 20 years with the firm, and before that was an advisor at RBC Dominion Securities. Richardson recently became part of iA Financial, after a $597-million deal was struck in July. Richardson has lost some advisory teams since the deal was announced, including three in Winnipeg, and netted another.
  • Mike Pedersen has been appointed to the board of EQB Inc., which also announced he will take over as chair once Vincenza Sera steps down from the position in April 2026, after 13 years on the board. Sera, who was appointed chair in September 2024, will not seek re-election to the board next year. Pedersen brings more than three decades of leadership experience in financial services, including as president and CEO of TD Bank Group’s U.S. banking business. More recently, he was chair of the Business Development Bank of Canada for five years, ending in late 2023, and currently serves on several boards, including CGI and AtkinsRéalis. EQB, the parent company of Equitable Bank, named a new CEO, Chadwick Westlake, earlier this year after previous chief executive Andrew Moor passed away in June.
  • Caroline Dufaux has been named chief financial officer of BMO U.S. She’ll succeed Rahul Nalgirkar, who will move up to CFO of BMO Financial Group in January, in place of Tayfun Tuzun, who is retiring. Dufaux has been CFO of BMO Capital Markets since 2023, and first joined BMO in 2017 as vice-president, head of capital and funding for Bank of Montreal. Before that, she spent six years with Barclays, including as director, treasury and head of Americas capital management.
  • Kaitlyn Lawson has been promoted to head of practice management at CI Global Asset Management. She was previously director of advisor development, and before joining CI GAM in 2023, was director of business development with iA Private Wealth for 13 years.
  • J.P. Lavoie has been named senior vice-president, private counsel, corporate development and M&A with Wellington-Altus. Lavoie joined the firm in 2018 as vice-president, corporate development and investment advisor, before being promoted to senior vice-president in 2022. Jeffrey Nairn has joined Wellington-Altus as vice-president, corporate development for British Columbia. Nairn was a regional sales vice-president with TD mutual funds for six years, and then with BMO Global Asset Management for over four years ending in 2017. He founded a cider business before returning to financial services.
  • Nicolas Ospina has joined VersaBank as global chief financial officer, a new role. Ospina has been with Raymond James in the U.S. for more than a decade, most recently as vice-president of investment banking. John Asma has been promoted to executive vice-president responsible for Canadian digital banking operations and strategy. Asma was previously VersaBank’s CFO. The appointments support Versabank’s previously announced restructuring to align with U.S. banks’ standard structure.

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