Genworth Spinoff Taps Big Names for Board

Genworth Financial Wealth Management has added some big names to its board of directors.

The turnkey asset management firm made the move after closing its sale to private equity investors from publicly traded Genworth Financial, and ahead of a coming rebrand.

We wanted to assemble a board that has deep experience in a lot of areas -- and thats what we got, says the firms CEO, Gurinder Ahluwalia. We wanted people who had executive-level experience in our space.

The new board members include:

Charles Goldman, who brings to the board experience from the distribution perspective. Goldman is a former president of custody and clearing at Fidelity and former head of Schwab Institutional; he also sits on the board of directors of the CFP Board.
Hal Strong, who brings asset management and investment banking experience from his years as vice chairman of Russell Investments, where he helped build it into a global company.
Steven Spiegel, a former vice chairman of Putnam Investments. Spiegel also is a partner in Aquiline Capital Partners, one of the two private equity firms that own Genworth.

Rounding out the six-person board are Ahluwalia and two other partners in the private equity firms, Ahluwalia says: Richard Rosenbaum, a partner at New York-based Aquiline, and Anthony Salewski, a principal with Genstar Capital of San Francisco.
BREAKING AWAY

Aquiline and Genstar announced in April they would be buying the wealth management platform from its publicly traded parent Genworth Financial. The $412.5 million deal closed on Aug. 30, Ahluwalia says.

For much of this year, the firm has said it would be changing its name to distinguish its brand from its former owner with the nearly identical name. Initially it said the name change would come in September.

Ahluwalia now says he expects to choose and announce the new name between November and early next year.

Since the deal closed, he says, the firm has been focused on finding the right board members in order to begin a more aggressive pursuit of its market. Its platform manages more than $20 billion in assets for more than 6,000 advisors; and through its subsidiary Altegris, the Genworth platform offers third-party investment management products and alternatives.

ADDED SERVICES

The firm points to the practice management consulting services it provides for its advisors, through a network of consultants, as a key differentiator.

Goldman, one of the three new board members, says the practice management focus sets Genworth apart from other turnkey asset managers, comparing it to Apple's Genius Bar retail tech support.

We think theres a lot of opportunity to enhance our platform, so we are doing that, Goldman says. But our core is around this idea of great [investment] managers -- strategists, we call them -- delivered through our platform. And [there's] this idea that its not just picking managers; its how do you help advisors build their businesses.

The new board members should help the company stay focused, Ahluwalia says. The beauty of this board is in setting our strategy to say, How do we stay laser-focused on our advisors experience?" he says. "When [Genworth Financial] declared us to be non-core, those strategic dialogues didnt really happen."

We do want to get onto our name and get onto our next chapter, he adds. Getting our board together is a step in the right direction.

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Ann Marsh

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