Financial services firm FNZ announced that Blythe Masters was named its Group CEO, replacing Founder Adrian Durham, who is transitioning to a non-executive role as Founding Director and Senior Advisor.
Durham will continue to sit on the FNZ Group Board and remain a “significant” shareholder in the firm.
Masters joined Motive Partners in 2019 and will remain a Founding Partner of Motive Partners, one of FNZ’s main shareholders.
She is also a board member of alternative asset manager GCM Grosvenor; alternative investments platform CAIS; Forge Global, a market infrastructure provider for secondary private equity securities; and SymphonyAI, which specializes in generative and predictive AI.
Masters also served on boards for Credit Suisse and Santander, and was a member of the Corporate and Investment Bank Operating Committee and firmwide Executive Committee at J.P. Morgan.
During her almost three decades at J.P. Morgan, she held roles including Head of Global Commodities, Head of Corporate and Investment Bank Regulatory Affairs, CFO of the investment bank, Head of Global Credit Portfolio and Credit Policy and Strategy, and Head of Structured Credit.
FNZ is “well-positioned to capitalize on industry trends and create value through a sustainable growth strategy,” Masters said.
New Capital
The FNZ leadership transition comes as FNZ’s existing shareholders, including Motive Partners, committed more than $1 billion of capital to support the success of FNZ over the long term, FNZ said in a press release.
The transition sets the stage for its “next phase of sustainable growth and is another prominent example of Motive’s proprietary Investor, Operator and Innovator model,” according to the release.
Masters brings “expert sectoral knowledge and operating experience” and “understands and knows the business as FNZ is a Motive Partners portfolio company,” according to FNZ.
Other Leadership Changes
Roman Regelman, meanwhile, was appointed the new Group President of FNZ, reporting to Masters.
Regelman brings more than 25 years of financial services and technology experience to FNZ, the firms pointed out. He will also become an Industry Partner of Motive Partners, they said.
He has over 25 years of financial services and technology experience. Before joining FNZ, he led the largest segment at BNY Mellon as CEO of Securities Services and Digital, with nearly $9 billion in revenue, leading 25,000 people across 30 countries. Before that, he was a Partner and Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group.
Additionally, Stephen C. Daffron, a Co-Founder and Industry Partner at Motive Partners, will become a Strategic Advisor for FNZ.
He launched his first firm more than 30 years ago, providing an early electronic trading system, the release said. Daffron had led technology, data and operations functions for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as well as in the hedge fund space for Jim Simon’s Renaissance Technologies.
Most recently, Daffron headed BetaNXT, which is also in the Motive Partners portfolio. It provides clearing and settlement, cost basis/tax reporting, and client communications for the U.S. self-clearing broker-dealer market, FNZ and Motive Partners said.
Founded in 2003, the firm has assets under administration of $1.6 trillion with 6,000 employees globally. It is a partner to over 650 financial institutions and 12,000 wealth managers, it says.
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor & Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jberman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
