Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. Appoints Two Industry Veterans Focused on Data Analytics and Inorganic Growth Strategies
June 29 2020 - 3:30PM
Business Wire
Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. (NYSE: WDR) today announced
that it has appointed financial industry veterans to focus on two
key components of the Company’s strategic growth plans.
- Rajesh Chalamalasetti has been named Senior Vice President,
Chief Analytics Officer. With 17 years of experience, most
recently serving as Chief Analytics Officer of Principal Financial
Group, Chalamalasetti has a track record of using data to advance
profitable business initiatives. He will lead Waddell & Reed
Financial’s ongoing efforts to expand the organization’s
enterprise-wide data analytics and artificial intelligence
capabilities. This newly created role reflects the organization’s
increased focus on applying data-driven decisions and analytics
across the enterprise to identify business growth opportunities and
enhance client and advisor experiences in both our asset and wealth
management businesses and employee experiences across the
Company.
- Charles Holznecht has been named Vice President,
Acquisitions Strategy and Integration. Holznecht brings 18
years of experience, most recently serving as a private equity and
investment banking Principal of George K. Baum, where he focused on
originating, evaluating and executing investment opportunities and
leading M&A transactions for the firm’s private equity and
investment banking divisions. His experience includes over $1.0
billion in closed transactions across a broad array of
technology-enabled and service-based end markets. He will help
coordinate the origination, evaluation and integration of
acquisitions across both the asset management and wealth management
businesses to further the Company’s inorganic growth strategy.
“Rajesh and Charles are experienced business leaders who will
spearhead efforts in support of two of our essential strategic
enablers identified as part of our long-term strategic plan: our
technology and data analytics capabilities, and delivering on the
inorganic growth component of our plan,” said Philip J. Sanders,
CEO of Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. “We are excited to
welcome Rajesh and Charles to the Waddell & Reed Financial
team.”
Sanders added that, when Waddell & Reed Financial updated
its growth strategy last year, the Company focused on key strategic
enablers spanning wealth management, asset management and the
overall enterprise. Those include: product and pricing; core
processes and performance; technology and data analytics; capital
allocation; growth culture and agile organization; and brand
awareness and perception.
Chalamalasetti and Holznecht will report to Ben Clouse, Chief
Financial Officer of Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc.
“They each will provide vision and a focus on innovation and
results while helping deliver on our growth strategy,” said Clouse.
“Rajesh brings enhanced expertise to our organization at a time
when data-driven decision making is critical to our growth
strategies, and Charles will help execute on the key inorganic
growth component of our strategic plan.”
About Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc.
Through its subsidiaries, Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. has
provided investment management and financial planning services to
clients throughout the United States since 1937. Its subsidiaries
include Ivy Investments, an asset manager and distributor of
investment products to retail and institutional clients; and
Waddell & Reed, Inc., a broker-dealer with nationally based
independent financial advisors. For more information, visit
ir.waddell.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200629005757/en/
Media Contact: Roger Hoadley VP, Communications
rhoadley@waddell.com
Investor Relations Contact: Mike Daley VP, Chief Accounting
Officer & Investor Relations mdaley1@waddell.com
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