Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (SRPS) has appointed Dianne Sandoval as the new Chief Investment Officer (CIO), according to a press release. Sandoval brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success in investment strategy and management and will begin her tenure in January 2026. Sandoval has more than 30 years of investment management experience, having held various leadership positions in both the public and private sectors. She currently serves as the head of portfolio design for HESTA, an Australian superannuation fund.
Piper Sandler has launched a private markets trading function, appointing three managing directors for the business line, Global Trading reported. Patrick Gordon, Kyle Mooney and David Ilishah joined the bank from private marketplace Forge Global. Gordon and Mooney are co-heads of the division. Reporting to Tom O’Kane and Mike Cox, co-heads of global equities, they will focus on trading equity shares of private companies. Gordon spent close to five years at Forge as a director and senior director of capital markets, before which he was part of the equity research product management and institutional equity sales and trading teams at William Blair. Mooney’s decade of industry experience includes more than four years at Forge, where he was most recently a managing director. Ilishah spent more than seven years at Forge, becoming senior director of private capital markets at the start of this year.
Stuart Holt has joined Equity Sales at J.P Morgan, he shared on LinkedIn. He has more than 20 years of experience and has previously worked at Berenberg, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Sanford Bernstein and Credit Suisse.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Cristina Martin Firvida, who has served as the Director of the Office of the Investor Advocate since January 2023, will conclude her tenure with the agency at the end of January 2026. According to a press release, prior to serving as the Investor Advocate, Martin Firvida worked at AARP as vice president of financial security and livable communities for government affairs.
Simplify Consulting has announced the appointment of Mark Andrews and Michael James as Practice Directors. According to a press statement, Andrews has an extensive career in financial services operations and transformation with over 25 years of consulting experience spanning wealth, investment, insurance and pensions. James joins Simplify as Technology Consulting Director, bringing extensive expertise in management, business transformation, technology strategy, data and platform development.
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