Mourant 

Mourant has appointed Philip Allen as chief marketing officer and Steve Cornick as global head of marketing.

Allen has more than 20 years of international marketing and business development experience. He joins Mourant having spent the past eight and a half years working at international and offshore professional services firm Ogier, where he was the firm's global business development director.

He has experience leading international teams of business development and marketing professionals across key markets including Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Asia. He is known for building brands, cultivating client relationships, and finding new avenues for growth.

Cornick comes to Mourant from Brand Spark, the consultancy he founded. He has over 25 years of experience in brand development and professional services marketing. He was integral in shaping the brand direction at Elian and Intertrust Group before its acquisition by CSC Global. He is recognised for building brand awareness, building high-performing marketing teams and driving commercial results.

Together, they will focus on enhancing the firm's commercial marketing and business development approach in line with the firm’s strategic objectives.

Jonathan Rigby, CEO of Mourant, said: "We’re excited to welcome Philip and Steve to Mourant. They bring fresh ideas and a commitment to strong marketing and business development. Their leadership will help us to build the strength of our brand in key markets and will support our client centric approach to relationship management, as we continue to grow worldwide."

Allen said: "Mourant is known for excellence in client service and has considerable expertise in key sectors such as private capital. It's an exciting time to join the firm and I’m looking forward to working with my new colleagues to support the ongoing growth and success of the business, through the next phase of its evolution."

CISI 

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment has named Hylko Zingstra ACSI as the new South East branch president. He takes over from Suneeta Puranik, Chartered MCSI.

Zingstra is a director at Munehisa & Co, supporting a diverse client base seeking tax-efficient access to alternative investments across the UK and Benelux markets. He has worked in derivatives broking for over ten years, engaging with regulators, counterparties and investors.

He aims to strengthen collaboration across the South East region’s network and create more opportunities for innovation in alternative investments. He’ll also look at more ways to support the next generation of professionals entering a career in financial services in the region.

Zingstra said: “I’m grateful for the trust placed in me and excited about the opportunity to bring more finance professionals together. I look forward to building on the strong foundations already in place.

“Suneeta has led with both clarity and compassion, and her contributions have had a lasting impact. I’m deeply thankful for her guidance and everything she’s done to progress the committee.”

Tracy Vegro OBE, CISI chief executive, said: “It is a pleasure to welcome Hylko as he begins his term as the new South East branch president. We look forward to working with him to increase member engagement, particularly with young professionals and new entrants to the profession across the region.”

Evelyn Partners 

Evelyn Partners, has appointed Alex Gersh as its new chief financial officer and an executive director, subject to regulatory approval. Gersh will join Evelyn Partners at the end of April and will work closely with Scott Kirk, Interim CFO, to ensure an orderly handover. He replaces Andrew Baddeley, who had served as group CFO since 2018 and became chief financial officer of S&W, Evelyn Partners’ former professional services business, following the completion of its sale last month.

Gersh is a seasoned chief financial officer, bringing over 30-years’ experience and strong technical expertise in financial management. His diverse career spans senior leadership positions at both private equity backed and public companies across the UK and the US.

Most recently he was CFO of the New York Stock Exchange-listed global payments business Paysafe, in which CVC and Blackstone were major shareholders. Prior to that, Alex was CFO of Sportradar, where he led a successful $7bn IPO on NASDAQ. Alex was also formerly the CFO of innovative online sports betting provider Betfair through its merger with Paddy Power, and then went on to be the CFO of the combined group, Paddy Power Betfair (now Flutter), which is a former constituent of the UK’s FTSE 100 Index.

Paul Geddes, chief executive officer of Evelyn Partners, said: “Alex is a highly accomplished CFO who will be a fantastic addition to the leadership team at Evelyn Partners. He joins us at a pivotal time for the business, which has recently undergone a significant strategic transformation to refocus the firm solely on wealth management where we see excellent growth opportunities.

“I would also like to thank Scott Kirk who has been an excellent Interim CFO working alongside Andrew Baddeley through a period of major change over the last year which culminated in successful transactions to sell our Professional Services and Fund Solutions businesses.”