Cetera’s Parent Company Completes Board, Appoints Mary Cranston, Robert Dineen and Edmond Walters
Cetera Financial Group, a network of independent broker-dealer firms, announced that its parent holding company, Aretec, has completed the formation of its board of directors with the addition of three new directors, Mary Cranston, Robert Dineen and Edmond Walters.
Last month, Cetera formally separated from former parent company RCS Capital, following its pre-planned bankruptcy earlier this year.
The new board members join non-executive chairman Robert Moore; Michael Kaufman, principal at Redwood Capital Management LLC; David King, managing director at Fortress Investment Group; and Larry Roth, who also serves as chief executive officer of Cetera Financial Group.
“I am pleased and honored to serve alongside this talented group of experienced industry leaders on our new board of directors,” said Moore. “The completion of our new board reflects the confidence that senior leaders place in Cetera. This also reflects the commitment we all have to our shared mission of helping our advisors and the financial institution investment programs we support to continue to grow their businesses by delivering exceptional value to their clients.”
Cranston is a retired senior partner and past chair of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP., an international law firm. In her eight years as chair, she expanded the firm from a regional California base into an international platform. Cranston currently serves on the boards of Visa Inc., The Chemours Company, and Myokardia Inc.
Dineen most recently served at Lincoln Financial Network as vice chairman and a member of Lincoln Financial Group’s senior management committee. Previously, he headed Lincoln Financial Network, the retail distribution arm of Lincoln Financial Group, and served as chief executive officer of Lincoln Financial Securities Corporation and Lincoln Financial Advisors Corporation. Dineen serves on the board of Aegon NV, a Dutch life insurance, pensions and asset management company.
Walters most recently served as chief executive officer of eMoney Advisor, which provides a web-based wealth planning system to more than 55,000 financial advisors. eMoney was sold to Fidelity in 2015. Previously, Walters spent more than 20 years in the financial services industry advising high net worth clients, and was a founder of the Wharton Business Group, a financial advisory firm based in Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the board of InsPro Technologies Corp.
“With the separation of the CEO and chairman roles together with the formation of a board that is empowered to make independent decisions, I believe we are leading the way towards serving as a model of corporate governance best practices,” said Moore.
He added, “This is an approach that we are confident will generate sustainable superior outcomes for all of our stakeholders, including the advisors and institutions we serve. Now that our strategic transformation process is complete, giving us a healthy balance sheet in addition to the strong loyalty we continue to enjoy from our advisors and institutions, we are eager to move ahead with our singular focus on empowering the delivery of objective financial advice to individuals across the country.”
Cetera is the second-largest independent financial advisor network in the nation by number of advisors, as well as a leading provider of retail services to the investment programs of banks and credit unions.
