Sequoia Financial Group has made three senior leadership appointments.
In a statement to the ASX, the firm said it has made hires in the space of operations, compliance and risk.
Martin Morris, former chief distribution officer and director at Praemium for seven years, has joined the firm as its chief operating officer. Prior to joining Praemium, he was the chief executive of Complete Super Solutions.
Morris has over 30 years’ experience in financial services across superannuation, financial advice, business development and distribution.
He stepped down from Praemium earlier this year, writing on LinkedIn that “now is the time for a new cohort to lead the business and its strategic direction”.
The other two roles appointed by Sequoia sit in the compliance space.
Justin Harding will join the firm later this year as head of legal and risk, joining from WT Financial Group. Sequoia said he will take ownership of the legal and risk role within its licensee services division.
At WT Financial, he held a similar role as head of legal and regulatory affairs since the start of 2023. He previously spent three years at Synchron, which was acquired by WT Financial in 2022.
Finally, Mark Hutchinson will join in mid-August from the corporate regulator ASIC as a senior compliance manager.
“The new appointments represent a significant milestone for our organisation, and we are confident that their leadership will elevate our company to new levels of success.”
The firm also said it expects to finalise the sale of Morrison Securities to digital wealth management platform, New Quantum, at the end of August 2023.
Sequoia has also been active in the M&A space with the acquisition of two advice firms in July for $3.1 million and investment on a 20 per cent stake in Euree Asset Management, launched by AFL veteran James Hird.
Sequoia said: “[Euree] will initially offer three fund options aimed at supporting financial advisers who want to reduce the cost of advice by accessing a single fund that has the intellectual property and know-how to select a range of investments under one umbrella across various asset classes to form either a balanced, growth or property-style fund.”
