CI Financial Corp.'s chief financial officer is stepping down from his role at a time when the company is rapidly expanding into the U.S. market.
Douglas Jamieson, CFO of wealth manager CI and president of subsidiary CI Investments Inc., will resign once a successor is found, the company said in a statement.
Mr. Jamieson has been with CI for more than 25 years, and has spent the past 15 years as CFO. On Friday afternoon, the company said Mr. Jamieson’s decision to leave is not the result of any “issues or disagreement with the company on any matter relating to its operations, financial statements, internal controls, policies or practices.”
CI and Mr. Jamieson declined to comment further when contacted by The Globe.
“Doug has been an integral part of executive management and a contributing force to our firm’s growth over many years,” CI chief executive officer Kurt MacAlpine said in the statement.
Mr. Jamieson’s resignation comes a day after the company received regulatory approval to list its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange, a key step in Mr. MacAlpine’s strategy to help boost the company’s profile in the United States as it completes deals south of the border
CI has been busy with U.S. acquisitions over the past year. To date, the company has purchased 12 registered investment advisory (RIA) firms and has several future deals in the pipeline.
“Losing a key individual at this time is not ideal,” Desjardins analyst Gary Ho said in a research note. “We believe Mr. Jamieson played an integral part in CI’s cost discipline over the last number of years.”
Over the past year and a half, CI has seen several transformations after Mr. MacAlpine replaced long-time CI executive Peter Anderson, who retired in 2019. In addition to expanding into the United States, Mr. MacAlpine has made several acquisitions in the Canadian financial services market, including a majority interest in Aligned Capital Partners Inc., an Ontario-based investment advisory firm with $10-billion in assets. CI also bought the Canadian division of Mr. MacAlpine’s former employer, exchange-traded funds manager Wisdom Tree.
Shortly after the addition of Wisdom Tree’s business earlier this year, Rohit Mehta, former president of CI Financial’s ETF business and executive vice-president of marketing, left the company to join several former CI executives at asset manager Guardian Capital LP.
CI has not named a replacement for Mr. Mehta.
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Clare O’Hara