LPL Financial has appointed Joan Khoury, a former Merrill Lynch Wealth Management executive, to the role of managing director and chief marketing officer.
Khoury brings years of experience developing and promoting the biggest brands in the financial services industry. At Merrill, she was senior vice president, strategic marketing and oversaw a 90-member team that developed award-winning marketing and brand development programs for the group.
“I am very excited to join a growing and entrepreneurial firm,” Khoury told Financial Planning. “LPL Financial is singularly focused on advisors and helping to bring advice to a broader spectrum of investors.”
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Earlier in her nearly 20 years in the financial services sector, Khoury had been senior vice president and global head of marketing, for Wachovia; a managing director and group head of the global marketing division for Bank of New York Mellon; and a vice president and marketing manager for Bank of America. The LPL Financial post is Khoury’s first position with a decidedly open-architecture financial services firm for the first time. Yet she said the fundamentals are the same as her previous positions.
“It is understanding that your advisors are your clients,” Khoury said, adding that it is important to know, ultimately, how the investors connect to a company’s brand.
Khoury effectively succeeds Ruth Papazian, who was LPL’s executive vice president and CMO until she left last May, Robert Moore, LPL’s chief financial officer said. The firm had placed Dan Krems in the role of interim CMO.
“We view Joan’s decision to joins us as reflective of us being able to draw a top talent, and putting together the conditions her experience and potential represents,” Moore said.
LPL enhanced the CMO position, making Khoury a managing director, too. It also shifted the public relations team under her purview, away from corporate communications, Moore said. The changes give the CMO office more weight in the organization, and its scope is similarly broad.
Khoury will handle a range of core marketing responsibilities, including research and regulatory reviews. She will also organize LPL’s annual advisor conference and smaller training events staged throughout the year.
--Donna Mitchell writes for
