Deals & People April 11, 2025

Retirement Industry People Moves – 4/11/2025

Nationwide Retirement Solutions names a mid-market acquisition director; Groom Law Group expands its retirement and fiduciary practice; Cache appoints heads of investor, institutional solutions; and more.

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Nationwide Retirement Solutions Names Mid-Market Acquisition Director

John Chavez

Nationwide announced that John Chavez has joined the company’s distribution team as mid-market acquisition director, covering government sector new plan acquisition for the Western territory of the U.S.

Chavez reports to Rob Bilo, associate vice president of acquisition and strategic relationships for Nationwide Retirement Solutions.

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Since joining Nationwide in 2015, Chavez has served in institutional relationship management and consultant relations roles at Nationwide Financial. His other previous experience includes serving as a consultant at Multnomah Group and holding key sales and consultant relations roles at TIAA, Prudential and Scudder Kemper Retirement Services.

Groom Law Group Expands Retirement, Fiduciary Practice

Lee Antone

Groom Law Group announced that Lee Antone has joined the firm as a principal in its retirement services and fiduciary practices.

Antone brings experience in financial services law, having recently served as the chief legal and risk officer of a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered investment adviser. He also previously worked as an SEC attorney and has experience with FINRA’s Office of General Counsel.

At Groom, Antone will advise clients on investment advisory compliance, enterprise risk management, fiduciary governance, complex agreement negotiations and regulatory examinations and investigations.

Cache Appoints Heads of Investor, Institutional Solutions

Cache Financials Inc., a fintech company offering specialized products for managing large, concentrated stock positions for individuals and their advisers, announced the appointment of executives Aaron White, as head of investor solutions, and Sang Chou, head of institutional solutions. 

White will lead the investor solutions team, helping develop a range of products for managing concentrated positions and serving as the liaison for high-net-worth clients.

Chou will lead the institutional channel at Cache, serving independent RIAs, broker/dealers and other financial intermediaries to deepen the firm’s relationships across the wealth management community.

Easterly Asset Management Appoints CIO of Easterly Snow

Joshua Schacter

Easterly Asset Management announced the appointment of Joshua Schacter as chief investment officer of Easterly Snow.

Schachter assumes the CIO role from Richard Snow, who will remain with the firm as portfolio manager for the Easterly Snow Long/Short Opportunity and All Cap Value strategies, as well as select private investment vehicles. Snow will transition away from day-to-day management to focus solely on portfolio management.

Schacter joined the firm in 2001 and supported the firm’s expansion to manage external capital while assembling a seven-person investment team that applies an established, bottom-up selection process focused on value investing.

Deals & People April 11, 2025

Hub Names EVP of US Employee Benefits and Retirement and Private Wealth

Mustafa Faizani will assume a new role as the executive vice president of U.S. employee benefits and retirement and private wealth.

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Hub International announced appointments to the leadership teams of its U.S. employee benefits and retirement and private wealth units.

Mustafa Faizani

Effective May 5, Mustafa Faizani will assume a new role as the executive vice president of U.S. employee benefits and retirement and private wealth. Faizani will report to Jack McGrath, president of Hub’s Pacific region and a member of the executive management team.

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Michael Booth succeeds Mike Barone as president of the U.S. employee benefits practice, as Barone takes on a new role at Hub focused on M&A, recruiting top talent and producer coaching/sales assistance.

Booth and Joe DeNoyior, president of Hub retirement and private wealth, will report to Faizani.

Faizani joins from Mercer, where he held several leadership positions and has extensive experience across employee benefits, retirement and private wealth and P&C; his most recent role was CEO of the US West market.

Prior to his time at Mercer, Faizani worked for 11 years in institutional investment client- and market-facing roles, including vice president for retirement plan services at Union Bank of California. He holds an MBA in finance from Pepperdine University and a bachelor’s of business administration from the University of Houston.

Booth, who has been with Hub since December 2015, will will lead Hub’s continued investments in the practice, which has more than 5,000 U.S. employee benefits professionals who provide employee benefits and consulting, health and performance, employee engagement and communication, workforce technology solutions, data and clinical analytics and compliance services.

“Mustafa is a proven leader in mobilizing sales, servicing teams and fostering collaboration across multiple lines of business. His commercial experience, and digital and artificial intelligence innovation for product development and servicing will drive further alignment between our benefits and retirement businesses,” said Marc Cohen, Hub’s chairman and CEO, in a statement. “Our retirement and employee benefits leadership’s focus and successful record in cross selling is an important contributor to our organic growth. Mustafa will further add to that strategy with proprietary go-to-market solutions that capitalize on market opportunities.”

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