Novia has hired the managing director of LV's heritage business as its chief operating officer as it seeks "improved efficiency and experience" for its platforms users.
Lynzi Harrison has been appointed chief operating officer and is the latest member of a reshuffled leadership team to join Novia, following the appointment of Barry Neilson as chief commercial officer late last year.
The six-person executive team is led by Patrick Mill, who previously led Wealthtime - another of AnaCap’s recent acquisitions.
He took over from Novia’s founder, Bill Vasilieff, in May 2021.
“The completion of the executive team is an important milestone for me, and the business and I am thrilled Lynzi is the one doing it,” said Mill.
“She has a tremendous amount of experience across the sector and this, combined with her considerable drive and determination, will be hugely important to the whole team as we look to accelerate our plans to develop and grow the business.”
Harrison will be responsible for the strategic operational development of the business and will lead and manage the day-to-day servicing capability of the team.
“It is great to be joining the business at such a pivotal time,” said she said. “Over the last six months, Patrick has put in place an experienced new leadership team with the vision and expertise to take the business forward at pace.”
She continued: “The winning platforms over the next few years will be those that deeply understand the needs of their users and can provide the type of support that helps create capacity in their businesses, allowing them time to do more financial planning.
“I’m delighted to be joining the team at Novia and very much looking forward to playing my part in continually improving the service we deliver to our users and customers.”
Before working at LV, Harrison spent more than a decade at Old Mutual, where she oversaw platform operations for a time.
Alongside her executive role at Novia, the former LV boss is also a non-executive director at Tisa Exchange, which helps facilitate the electronic transfer of wrappers and assets between fund managers, platforms and wealth managers.
Back in November, when asked how the flurry of exits from Novia since its acquisition had been received by advisers, Mill said: “Clearly it is unsettling, because people have been around a long time."
But he added that “a start-up is very different to the size of the business today”, and that “the majority of people recognised things needed to change”, with focus now shifting to growing Novia from a £12.5bn business to one with more than £20bn in assets.
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
