Retirement Industry People Moves – 2/9/24

TIAA Expands Role to Name Head of Institutional Lifetime Income Team

Christopher Stickrod

In March 2023, Colbert Narcisse, TIAA’s chief product and business development officer, announced that Christopher Stickrod, based in Chicago, was named executive vice president and product general manager for institutional managed solutions. Stickrod’s role has now expanded to oversee TIAA’s institutional lifetime income team.

This includes overseeing TIAA’s flagship fixed annuity, TIAA Traditional, and the TIAA CREF variable annuities. As leader of institutional managed solutions, Stickrod will continue to oversee RetirePlus product management, which now has more than $30 billion in assets and more than 400,000 individual participant accounts across nearly 500 institutional clients.

Stickrod’s appointment is effective immediately. Prior to joining TIAA, Stickrod spent 17 years with Nuveen, TIAA’s asset manager.

SEI Appoints New CFO

Sean Denham

SEI announced Sean Denham as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer, reporting to CEO Ryan Hicke, effective March 18.

His appointment as CFO will take effect the day after the resignation of current CFO Dennis McGonigle, whose departure plans were announced by SEI in July 2023. 

Upon his appointment, Denham will be responsible for leading finance and accounting, corporate controllership, business management, enterprise risk management and investor relations functions, as well as administering the internal audit function.

For the last 20 years, Denham has served in various leadership roles at Grant Thornton, most recently as regional managing partner for the Atlantic Coast, national audit growth leader and the national special purpose acquisition company leader. As an audit partner in the firm, he served some of Grant Thornton’s most prominent clients, including public and private companies in the professional services industries.

T. Rowe Price Promotes Company Veterans

T. Rowe Price Group Inc. named Kevin Collins and Francisco Negrón to take new positions leading the firm’s businesses serving the U.S. intermediary and retirement services channels, effective March 1.

Collins will become head of U.S. intermediaries, T. Rowe Price’s business supporting financial advisers and consultants in the intermediary channel. He will report to Dee Sawyer, who was promoted to head of global distribution as of January 1. Sawyer is responsible for sales, marketing and client service, taking over after the retirement of Robert Higginbotham.

Since 2019, Collins has been the head of retirement plan services, which provides investments and recordkeeping services for sponsors and participants of workplace retirement plans. Collins joined T. Rowe Price in 1994 and has held various leadership positions.

Concurrent with Collins’ move, the division’s Annie Brown and Jim Zurad will take roles as co-heads of USI Wealth Management. Brown will lead the unit’s national accounts management team across the broker/dealer, global bank and platform groups, while Zurad will lead its field sales organization. Both will report to Collins.

Negrón will succeed Collins as head of retirement plan services and report to Sawyer. For the past 12 years, Negrón has overseen RPS’ client services organization, which includes the relationship management, client account management, plan compliance consulting and participant engagement functions.

Negrón joined T. Rowe Price in 1987 and is a member of MOSAIC, the company’s business resource group focused on attracting and retaining ethnically diverse associates while promoting an inclusive culture and the firm’s Latinx Heritage community.

Manulife Investment Management Names Global Head of Private Markets

Anne Valentine Andrews

Global asset manager Manulife Investment Management announced Anne Valentine Andrews will join the firm on March 4 as global head of private markets.

With more than 25 years of asset management and alternatives experience, Andrews will lead all investment teams and direct the overall strategy, business development and growth of Manulife IM’s private markets business. She and her team will also work closely with the firm’s global product group and the business leads to drive private market product innovation across the institutional, retail and retirement channels.

Based in New York, Andrews will report to Paul Lorentz, Manulife IM’s president and CEO. 

Andrews joins Manulife IM from BlackRock, where she spent the past nine years, most recently serving as managing director and global head of infrastructure and real estate.

Federated Hermes Names National Sales Leader

Asset manager Federated Hermes promoted Jim Wojciak to national sales manager for retirement, insurance and sub-advised products, effective December 1, 2023, a spokesperson confirmed.

Wojciak’s promotion followed the retirement of his predecessor, Steve Cronin. Wojciak was previously a senior retirement consultant at the firm. He now leads Federated Hermes’ retirement sales efforts and business development with insurance companies and will oversee the company’s sub-advisory relationships.

“Jim’s years of experience in the retirement space and relationships make him an ideal leader for Federated Hermes’ retirement efforts,” said Paul Uhlman, president of Federated Securities Corp., by email. “He will oversee the development and execution of strategic sales initiatives that meet our retirement clients’ needs and promote sales growth for the company.”

Wojciak reports to Bryan Burke, director of strategic solutions.

CBIZ Investment Advisory Names New President

Stan Milovancev

CBIZ Inc. announced it named Stan Milovancev president of CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC, as of January 1.

“Milovancev replaces the former president of CBIZ Investment Advisory Services, who has assumed a different role within the organization,” a company spokesperson said by email. “Stan has played an integral role in developing national programs and activating high-performing teams. He brings over 30 years of experience, along with business acumen, strategic direction, and overall leadership skills, to the role.”

As president, Milovancev will oversee CBIZ Investment Advisory Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of CBIZ Inc.

CBIZ IAS provides asset management to institutional and private clients. CBIZ manages approximately $62 billion in assets under advisement as of December 31, 2023.

Fidelity Investments Bolsters Tax-Exempt Market

Fidelity Investments hired Brian Giles to the role of vice president of sales support for the tax-exempt market, a spokesperson confirmed. Giles was previously a regional vice president and East Region practice leader for tax-exempt retirement plan sales at OneAmerica.