Executive Moves: Aviva Hires Evergreen Veteran O'Brien as CEO

Aviva Investors has hired Pat O'Brien as chief executive officer of Aviva Investors North America Inc. O'Brien will be responsible for Aviva's operations in the United States and Canada, reporting to Alain Dromer, the London-based company's chief executive officer. O'Brien, who will be based in Chicago, will also join the parent company's global executive committee.

He has worked for Evergreen Investment Management, the asset management arm of Wachovia Corp. , since 2000. Initially, he was president of institutional asset management and, between 2008 and 2009, he was head of international for Wachovia Global Asset Management.

Before being hired by Evergeen, He worked for Banc One Investment Advisors Corp. for eight years, initially as managing director and, from 1995 to 2000, as senior managing director.

Dromer said O'Brien was hired to increase Aviva's institutional assets under management and that O'Brien will play "an important role as the primary local contact between Aviva Investors and our colleagues from the Aviva life and general insurance businesses in North America and, notably in this context, his strong understanding of fixed income investments, an asset class at the heart of our own business, will be particularly valuable."

Morgan Adds Drossos, Riguardi to Global Team

As part of its initiative to expand and develop its asset management business, Morgan Stanley has recruited Sophia Drossos to its global macro and asset allocation group. Drossos, who was named a senior investor in the unit, has worked for Morgan Stanley since 2003. She was co-head of its FX strategy.

Edward Riguardi was also added to the unit as a member of its research team. He has worked for Morgan Stanley since 2008 as an analyst.

The two executive changes are part of Morgan Stanley initiative to expand its asset management business. The unit suffered heavy losses after the financial crisis.

JPMorgan Securities Hires Morgan Stanley $3M Team

JPMorgan Securities has hired a $3-million team of veteran advisers from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney: Michael Lent, William Lent, Tammi Brown Lauder and William Christian. The team, called the Landmark Group, will be based in White Plains, N.Y.

The Lents had been at Smith Barney since 1993.

JPMorgan has been telling the industry since last year, through speeches and letters from CEO Jamie Dimon, that it plans to expand its advisory business. At a SIFMA speech last year, Dimon said the company will hire, but only at the top end. "If you're really really good, you should call JPMorgan and have them hire you," Dimon said at the time.

JPMorgan acquired about 350 advisers last year when it bought failed investment bank and brokerage Bear Stearns. JPMorgan Securities changed its name from Bear Stearns Private Client Service in January.

UBS Wealth Recruits Two Million-Dollar Partners

Martin McLaughlin, Sr. and Martin McLaughlin, Jr. have joined the Westport office of UBS Wealth Management Americas.

They came over from Wells Fargo, where they had assets under management of $180 million and generated fees and commissions of $1.5 million. They will report to Judson Potter, a complex director for UBS Wealth.

Meanwhile, John Walsh and Kenneth White joined UBS' office in Albany, NY. They came from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and report to Robert Lane, branch manager. They had $183 million in assets under management and $1 million in trailing-12 production.

UBS has staked its future on a strategy of serving the very high-end clients and focusing mostly on the large metro areas. It had announced last week that it had recruited two other million-dollar advisor teams from rivals Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch.

Raymond Schmidtke joined UBS's Seattle operation from Morgan, and Nina Hakim was recruited to the Westfield, N.J., operation from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Last month, UBS snatched up two other Morgan advisers. Paul Gilman and Marshall Hagen joined the firm's Wealth Management Americas office in New York. Together, the pair previously oversaw $296 million in client assets and generated up to $2.6 million in annual fees and commission.

ETFS Marketing Selects Carter to Join U.S. Sales

ETFS Marketing, a division of ALPS Distributors that specializes in exchange-traded fund marketing, investment research and public relations, has hired Patrick Carter for its U.S. sales team. Carter will specialize in selling the company's physically backed precious metal suite of products on the West Coast.

Carter has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, most recently with Dimensionnal Fund Advisors, where he led qualified retirement plan sales among the consultant and registered investment advisor channels. He was also with Merrill Lynch for 13 years, promoting various proprietary products in broker channels as well as directly to institutional investors.

ETFS Marketing sells the ETFS Gold Trust, ETFS Silver Trust, ETFS Palladium Trust and ETFS Platinum Trust.

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