Lawton will join the firm as a senior managing director and lead RPS as chief executive officer. Most recently, Lawton co-founded Fridson Investment Advisors, where he served as president, according to an announcement.

Lawton spent 11 years with Fidelity Investments in Boston, including five with Fidelity’s Retirement Services Company. As senior vice president, he managed all investment-related functions for Fidelity’s defined contribution businesses, including: DC client investment consulting, stable value product management, investment-only sales, client service and administration, consultant relations, investment product management, and training, the announcement said. He also served as executive vice president of DB Solutions for the Fidelity Employer Services Company, where he managed Fidelity’s bundled DB plan services business targeted to DB plans of $50 to $500 million in assets.

While with Fidelity, Lawton served as president and chief executive officer of Fidelity Management Trust Company, and as president and chief executive officer of Pyramis Global Advisors Trust Company, Fidelity’s institutional asset management firm.  Prior to Fidelity, he spent 16 years with Aetna serving in a variety of positions, most recently as chief marketing officer for Aeltus Investment Management, responsible for defined benefit and defined contribution distribution, marketing, and client service of investment products.

Lawton moves to the RPS position as Don Salama is promoted to chief strategy officer where he will take on the Strategy and Mergers and Acquisitions responsibilities for the enterprise. Salama joined New York Life Investments in 2002 and has RPS since 2006.

Previously, Salama held management positions for Retirement Plan Solutions at Hartford Financial Services and institutional sales and marketing at the Vanguard Group.

Both Salama and Lawton will report directly to John Kim and serve as members of New York Life Investments’ Senior Leadership Team.