Wealthtime announces senior Risk and Compliance hires

Novia Financial, the adviser-focused platform business, has made a raft of new senior hires within its Risk, Compliance and Governance departments.

From 1st November, James Wilson will join the platform as Chief Risk Officer (CRO). Wilson has held various CRO roles across the financial services sector including at FNZ, Mattioli Woods, and the IFG Group. Wilson will be replacing Tom Dudley who has decided to leave the business for personal reasons.

In addition, Sunny Seabrooke has been appointed permanent Head of Compliance, and will take on the role from 4th December, replacing Sue Smith who currently holds the role on an interim basis. Seabrooke joins from Legal & General where he was Head of Compliance and Conduct risk overseeing Workplace Savings and Retail Annuities. He previously held a Risk manager role at PwC.

The new appointments come after Novia hired Owen Wall as Head of Product Governance last month. Wall joins from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) where he was supervising two major retail banking groups to ensure they adhered to key regulatory principles and regulations. Wall is reporting into Lucy Bristow, Chief Customer Officer.

Patrick Mill, CEO at Novia, said: “The regulatory landscape isn’t getting any smoother, so ensuring that we can adapt and maintain effective internal controls to comply with regulatory changes and execute risk is key for delivering a platform that’s fit for the future. I’m extremely grateful to Tom for all his hard work over the years and wish him all the best for the future. I know that James, Sunny and Owen all bring an exceptional wealth of experience in doing this across a variety of financial services firms, so on behalf of the team we’re thrilled to have them on board.”

James Wilson, CRO at Novia said: “I’ve worked with other platforms in the past and I’m excited to be part of Novia’s journey to revolutionise the market with the next generation of platforms. Delivering true digitisation and next level service to advisers and their clients’ needs to be underpinned by a strong compliance culture and I look forward to doing my part to help take the platform to the next level.”