Docupace announced today that Lori Hardwick, a leader in the financial industry and fintech, has been named chair of its board of directors.
Hardwick has a distinguished career in fintech and financial services and has held leadership positions at Envestnet and BNY Mellon’s Pershing.
Her appointment is effective immediately. She succeeds Brad Bernstein, FTV Capital managing partner. Docupace, which is majority owned by FTV, offers a suite of cloud-based fintech digital operations software for the wealth management industry.
The chairmanship is in line with the professional goals Hardwick has developed throughout her life, she said in an interview. Under her board leadership, Docupace will try to continue to expand its footprint in the financial services industry, and, in particular, in the RIA space, as well as the independent broker-dealer space, she said.
It also is important for her to be in such a visible leadership role as a woman, said Hardwick.
“All of my career, I have been one of the few women in the room,” she said. “It is important for men to see that adding a woman to the c-suite level and board level can be massively beneficial” by bringing in new perspectives.
Hardwick will lead Docupace as it helps financial service firms improve their back office operations, David Knoch, CEO of Docupace, said in an interview. “The financial services industry has been focused on client relationships, as it should have been, but many back office operations remain inefficient,” which provides Docupace with lots to accomplish.
“We want to deepen our integration with the industry and provide such things better data sharing. As of now, we have a lot of large institutions that rely on us,” Knoch added. The firm wants to expand that further into the independent broker-dealer world and the RIA world.