Greg Fleming just hired the former chief of Goldman Sachs's elite financial planners and it shows he's serious about staying true to the Rockefeller name
- Greg Fleming's Rockefeller Capital Management has hired Tim O'Hara, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs's elite financial planning subsidiary.
- O'Hara will round out Fleming's management team when he joins in May.
- O'Hara will run the multi-family office business, and jointly run the Rockefeller Global Family Office unit alongside Christopher Randazzo, who runs the private wealth management business.
Greg Fleming's latest hire for Rockefeller Capital Management will run a business that traces its roots more than century ago to the oil baron's estate and just about round out his management team.
Fleming, the former Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch executive building Rockefeller into a $100-billion wealth firm, has hired Tim O'Hara, the ex-head of Goldman's vaunted wealth planning and financial counseling unit, Ayco.
O'Hara will run the firm's multi-family office business, which started by managing the wealth of John D. Rockefeller in 1882 and first took outside money in 1979. He will join the firm in May, according to a statement expected later on Tuesday. He joins Ayco colleague Brian Cuneo, who joined last year.
O'Hara brings more than two decades of experience at Ayco, which made its name providing concierge service to senior executives across corporate America around tax, investment and compensation planning, insurance and retirement advice. As CEO from 2013 to February 2018, O'Hara spearheaded new growth initiatives, including opening six new offices.
O'Hara came up through a business in Ayco that enjoys a hallowed status among many of its executive clients. The service is considered a choice perk by Goldman partners, who got access when the investment bank bought the firm in 2003. It's so valued in fact that a plan a couple years ago to cull smaller accounts of ex-partners rankled some of them so much that they called then-CEO Lloyd Blankfein to complain.
"With more than two decades at Ayco, Tim is one of the most experienced and accomplished leaders in the family office advisory space," Fleming said in a statement expected to be released later today. "His expertise as a trusted advisor will be a great complement to our distinguished team of wealth experts."
As the head of the multi-family office business, O'Hara will work closely with ex-Morgan Stanley exec Christopher Randazzo, who runs the private wealth management business. Together the two businesses fall under the Rockefeller Global Family Office umbrella. It's one of three business units, along with asset management and strategic advisory.
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Family offices have become popular in recent years for clients who want tax prep, estate planning, charitable giving and investment management housed under one roof, but they don't scale easily. That's where multi-family offices come in, allowing the sharing of resources and possible investing opportunities.
Fleming joined New York-based Rockefeller Capital in 2017 with a mandate to grow its footprint while still staying true to the Rockefeller name. The firm oversaw $18.4 billion through September and it's aiming for assets to top $100 billion by 2023, Fleming has said. Rockefeller has backing from Viking Global, one of the world's largest hedge funds.
Part of Rockefeller's growth will come through acquisitions, the first of which the company made in October with the addition of Greer Anderson Capital, a private investment management firm that was founded in 2008 to focus on ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth individuals. Greer Anderson, Fleming said in an interview with Business Insider, will not be the last buy as the company looks to boost its assets.