Cetera today announced that it has hired industry veteran Tom Gooley as chief operating office to lead its digital transformation efforts.
The company also said it has promoted Lisa Gok to the role of general counsel for the firm, succeeding David Greene, who left the organization earlier this year for personal reasons.
Gooley, whose most recent role was managing director of service, trading, and operations at LPL Financial, will be responsible for unifying technology, trading, services and operations across the organization to continue to deliver a digital experience that drives growth for financial professionals through scale and operating leverage, according to the announcement.
Prior to LPL, Gooley was senior managing director and chief risk officer for the retirement and individual financial services division at TIAA-CREF. He previously worked as managing director and head of operations for the global wealth and asset management divisions of Morgan Stanley, where he also co-led the project to convert assets from Smith Barney to the Morgan Stanley platform as part of their merger, the release said. He also worked for Bank of America Securities and Goldman Sachs in a variety of leadership roles.
Gok, the announcement said, joined Cetera as deputy general counsel in 2012 to manage and oversee litigation, as well as act as a liaison with regulators. Prior to that, she spent 15 years with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, both at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and in the Los Angeles regional office. She also was an assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia, where she tried more than 20 jury trials and conducted more than 1,000 hearings.
She also served as chief compliance officer at Transamerica Financial Advisors. In addition, just prior to joining Cetera, she was part of the legal team that handled the IPO for Green Dot Corporation, a financial technology firm and bank holding company.
Adam Antoniades, chief eecutive officer of Cetera, said attracting and retaining top talent is imperative to their mission to create outsized growth for our financial professionals and extend the delivery of an Advice-Centric Experience to more clients.
“We have two of the best in their fields with Tom and Lisa. Our ability to attract the caliber of Tom, with his track record of success, is testament to the opportunity we are creating and reflective of the convergence of service and technology in wealth management. He will accelerate the transition of how we process, enable and service our clients, so as to deliver our platform in a way that is most relevant to our financial professionals. Lisa's demonstrated legal acumen and savviness in anticipating and responding to regulatory change will continue to foster a culture of continuous improvement for Cetera and our community," he said.