People Moves
Baird Boosts Private Wealth Management Group In Texas After Acquisition
Baird, which recently acquired McAdams Wright Ragen, has made two hires within its private wealth management group in Houston, TX, and made another promotion.
Baird, which recently acquired McAdams Wright Ragen, has made two hires within its private wealth management group in Houston, TX, and made another promotion.
As a director, Craig Young – latterly of UBS Financial Services - will oversee the two Houston offices and also recruit advisors. Working with Young will be Patricia Sparks, who has been promoted to office administrative manager for the Houston market.
At UBS, Young led the firm’s Houston Galleria office, which houses around 55 advisors and some $6 billion in client assets. He held other leadership positions at UBS in the Houston metro area before that, assisting with the day-to-day management of a complex comprising four offices. Prior to UBS, Young was a business development officer at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, having started his career in financial services as an advisor at Smith Barney in 2006.
Meanwhile, Gary Foose has been brought in as a director and financial advisor at the firm’s Houston-Memorial City wealth management office. Foose has nearly 35 years of financial industry experience and is joined by registered client relationship specialist Giovanna Swisher.
Foose previously worked at Wells Fargo Advisors, where he has been since 1986 when the firm was known as A G Edwards. He began his career as a financial advisor in 1981 at Merrill Lynch.
The acquisition of MWR by Baird, which was announced in April and closed this month, means the firm now has over 800 financial advisors spanning 80 offices across 26 states – see more here.
Baird has seen its private wealth management arm expand significantly in recent years; the firm has hired over 325 financial advisors and branch managers since 2009 and set up shop in cities such as Portland, ME; Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, NC; Charleston, SC; Sarasota, FL; Sioux City, IA; Houston and Fort Worth, TX; Denver, CO; Salt Lake City, UT; San Francisco, CA; and Portland, OR.
