Oppenheimer Wealth Boss Mark Whaley to Pass the Baton

Oppenheimer & Co. said Monday that it is changing management at the top of its 1,100-advisor private client division.
Mark Whaley, who joined the New York-based firm ten years ago from Bear, Stearns and has helped it shave dozens of high-risk brokers from its ranks, will step down in February and be replaced by Ed Harrington, a managing director in the firm’s asset management division.
Whaley, who joined Oppenheimer in April 2008, will remain with the firm through 2019, according to a company press release. It did not say what he will be doing, and he did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
Harrington, who currently runs sales and marketing for the asset-management unit, has been with Oppenheimer for 25 years, the company said.
His “deep knowledge” of the firm and advisory practices “will empower our advisors, help recruit the next generation of advisors and continue to move the business forward,” Opco Chairman, CEO and largest individual shareholder Bud Lowenthal said in a prepared statement.
Whaley “navigated the Firm through a transitional period and set the business on a path to growth,” the company said in a news release. “He led the firm’s recruitment efforts and delivered significant asset growth and cutting-edge solutions for advisors,…and significant improvements in our pre-tax margins, as well as the implementation of compliance/supervisory controls.”