Wealth manager Kingswood has seen its chairman, Kenneth ‘Buzz’ West, and group chief financial officer, Patrick Goulding, leave the business.
West sat on the advice market consolidator’s board for seven years, serving as chairman for five. He will now continue as a consultant for the next six months, before fully retiring.
His role will be filled temporarily by David Hudd, who joined Kingswood back in 2018 and was previously Kingswood’s deputy chief executive.
The firm is in the process of searching for a permanent replacement.
Meanwhile Goulding led the Kingswood platform business for two years, initially spread across two roles - platform chief executive and group CFO - before focusing on the latter only.
From the beginning of next month, Jon Millam will take over the role of CFO. He joins from outsourcing business Equiniti, where he is finance director.
Prior to Equiniti, Millam held senior finance roles at American Express and British Airways.
“Kingswood has ambitious plans to accelerate both inorganic and organic growth across the business,” said David Lawrence, the firm’s UK chief executive, on the recent exits and appointments.
Lawrence became Kingswood’s UK chief executive in December. The firm has acquired five advice companies in the past two years, backed by the capital of its private equity backers.
The CEO told FTAdviser “finding value for money” with the acquisitions the firm undertakes was a priority.
He said: “We want to be able to achieve a 20 per cent return on investment over the medium term from the investments we make."
In January, Kingswood launched an advice academy in an effort to boost its talent pool and help aspiring financial planners looking to start or switch careers into the advice sector.
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
