The Colony Group, a registered investment advisor headquartered in Boston, has appointed eight new principals and promoted three senior leadership team members to supervisory positions, the company said today.
The eight new principals are Jack Baird, MBA, currently serving as senior portfolio manager; Frank Brochin, currently serving as chief investment officer, Family Office Practice; Lori B. Deane, JD, currently serving as senior wealth advisor; Michael Elzahr, CFA, MBA, currently serving as portfolio manager; Matthew H. Foster, JD, currently serving as senior wealth advisor in New York City and Greenwich, Conn.; Sean Kelly, CPA, MST, MPFP, MSM, currently serving as director, Tax Services; Kerri-Lyn LaRosee, currently serving as senior vice president, Human Capital; and Amy C. McMaster, currently serving as managing director, Client Services and Operations.
The eight join 87 other Colony principals in service to the firm’s eclectic clientele of business owners, corporate executives, professionals, athletes and entertainers, families, companies, and institutions.
“I am very proud of our new principals, who embody our company’s vision and bring a deep commitment to serving clients and team members as we all seek meaning and joy in our work and in our lives,” Michael J. Nathanson, CEO and chair of The Colony Group, said in a news release announcing the appointments. “The addition of these principals helps us create a meaningful impact and make a positive difference internally and externally, while also ensuring the continuity of our business and our services.”
With so many new principals now personally invested in Colony, Financial Advisor asked Nathanson if he had any concern that there might be “too many cooks in the kitchen,” each with a different vision for the company’s continued success. In an email response for comment, Nathanson said no.
“We share a common vision at The Colony Group: to be the leading financial advisory company in the world for clients and team members who seek meaning and joy in their lives,” he said in the email. “While we also have an agreed strategic plan as to how to achieve that vision, we understand that there will be many perspectives and many differences of opinion regarding all the details involved in implementing that plan – and we welcome them. Diversity – including diversity of thought – is not only one of our shared values, but also one of the secrets of our success.”
Nathanson said that his team’s ability to respect each other even when they disagree, as well as to learn from each other, to welcome dissent, and to encourage hard conversations were the fulcrums that powered the company’s ongoing quest to be a sustainable, adaptable, and evolving enterprise.
Nathanson said that with so many firms competing for the talent they need to scale their business, his firm does not stop at just acquiring talent through more than one channel; it focuses on retaining it as well.
“We offer purposeful work, clear career paths, exciting opportunities for advancement and ownership, competitive wages and benefits, and a nurturing, inclusive culture,” he said in the email. “We offer an environment that values kindness, super teams before superstars, lifelong learning, fun, and a powerful sense of contribution. On the latter point, our net-positive pledge binds us to give more to the world than we take. We seek to do what we must to ensure that the world is a better place because our company is in it."
As the financial services industry continues to diversify and expand career opportunities available to a new generation, Financial Advisor asked Nathanson what challenges companies as large as Colony still faced in finding and attracting new talent, and why.
“As Freud stated, in addition to everything we require for basic survival, all humans need connection and purpose,” he said in the email. “This is the great challenge of our day: to ensure that the work experience produces a strong sense of connection to others – even in the age of remote work – as well as an outlet in which company purpose and individual purpose are consistent and even symbiotic.”
Described on the Colony website as a lifelong learner, Nathanson graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Nathanson also received an LL.M. in taxation from Boston University, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
While Nathanson has served in a variety of leadership positions with Colony that included president, CFO, and general counsel, his original career path was not in the financial services industry; it was law. Before joining Colony, he served as senior partner at the international law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where he held several leadership positions.
Looking back on his own career choices and the path he took to his present position, Financial Advisor asked Nathanson if there was anything in retrospect that he would have done differently, and why.
“I have no regrets about my career, as I believe that all my failures, mistakes, and detours were important in getting me to exactly where I am today,” he said in the email. “If I could go back in time, I would have embraced and harnessed the power of interdependence earlier. It wasn’t until later in my career that I fully realized the almost unlimited power of seeing everyone as an ally and leveraging the unique contributions of others – even so-called competitors – to achieve together what cannot be achieved alone.”
In addition to naming eight new principals, the firm also promoted Stephanie Solakian Goldstein, who joined the company in February 2022 as senior vice president of marketing, to the position of chief marketing officer; Sheila A. Ryan, a principal who joined the company in 2018 as managing director of operations, to the position of managing director, Wealth Management Strategy; and Karla Sullivan, who joined the firm in May 2020 as deputy general counsel, to the position of general counsel.
Last month, Colony announced the company-wide promotions of 15 other professionals. In a prepared statement, Jennifer Geoghegan, chief of staff and strategy, praised the firm's latest group of employees to be promoted, as well as their achievements.
“These team members serve a critical role on our team and support The Colony Group’s mission to deliver peace of mind to our clients to enable their visions of tomorrow,” she said. “We are excited to watch this extraordinary group as they continue to grow in their careers.”
As of April 21, 2023, Investor.com reports on its website that The Colony Group currently has a licensed staff of 125 advisors managing $18.6 billion for 4,522 clients in 44 states nationwide.