The committee is to be comprised of some of the company’s top executives – although it apparently will not include founder and chief executive Nigel Green – and its mandate will be to oversee the company’s business development, best practice policies and corporate governance matters, while providing leadership and reviewing industry and client trends, deVere said.
The announcement comes eleven weeks into a six-month strategic review that deVere has said was launched to ensure it is best positioned to go forward as it entered its second decade in business.
Coady to head committee
Heading up deVere’s new European executive committee will be deVere group director Mike Coady, who is the company’s global head of Western Europe. The others are Paul Dodds, senior area manager of deVere Switzerland; Andrew Oliver, senior area manager of deVere Spain; Kevin White, head of UK financial planning; Mitch Hopkinson, a managing partner of deVere UK; Nigel Smith, European head of technical services; and Colm Donnelly, the European head of compliance and regulatory policy.
In its statement today, deVere said that even though its strategic review is not yet complete, it had "already become clear that as demand for its services increases and the industry continues to evolve at a fast pace, [its] Western European business model would be strengthened further and made more efficient" by being overseen by such a body.
Once the strategic review is completed, deVere added, it expects to "take the necessary steps to double its European presence within three years".
News of the creation of the new deVere European executive committee comes a week after it was revealed that as much as $50m in deVere client money is locked up in a now-suspended fund which had as its investment adviser a Switzerland-based company called United Asset Management (UAM). As reported, UAM was due to cease its role as the investment adviser on 25 May.
DeVere confirmed that Green had control of UAM — but not of the fund itself — until "some 12 months ago", and his ownership "was officially relinquished in September 2012".
DeVere is said to be the largest independent advisory firm in the international market, looking after more than $9bn on behalf of more than 70,000 clients in close to 100 countries.
