Richard McIntyre has joined Harbourfront Wealth Group as CEO, while founder and former CEO Danny Popescu has moved to executive chair in a leadership transition that’s aimed at continuing the firm’s already rapid pace of growth.
“I’ve had it in the back of my mind for some time that we really need additional help on the executive in order to take the business to the next level,” Popescu said in an interview.
The firm, founded in 2013, is on pace to reach $25 billion in assets under advisement (AUA) by the end of the year.
Enter McIntyre, who left Manulife Wealth, where he was president and CEO for four years, earlier this month.
Popescu said Harbourfront didn’t run an active search for a CEO. He first reached out to McIntyre in January, after hearing good things.
“I heard that he’s a strong leader, and entrepreneurial, and that very much resonated with me,” he said.
McIntyre brings more than three decades of experience in the industry, including leadership positions at Scotia Private Client Group, Dundee Wealth and Standard Life. Before joining Manulife as head of sales, Manulife Securities, in 2021, he served as chief operating officer at Dundee Corp.
He led Manulife Wealth through a period of transformation over the last several years, adopting a new technology platform and introducing new fees that irked some advisors.
In his new role, McIntyre will focus on strategy and strengthening Harbourfront’s advisor platform.
Asked if he left Manulife because he felt the job was done, McIntyre said: “I don’t think the job’s ever done, to be honest. The industry changes so quickly. You have to always be adapting. You have to be continually improving. You have to be rethinking your model, how you show up to your advisors and clients.”
However, he said he had a rewarding experience at the firm and was proud of what the team had accomplished.
“This wasn’t about leaving something, it was about moving towards something,” he said. “Harbourfront is at that point in its journey where I just believe there’s real opportunity to build and scale, and that’s something that I’m naturally drawn to.”
He said Harbourfront is an agile, entrepreneurial organization that understands advisors, pointing to a similar culture at one of his previous firms, Dundee Wealth, a “founder-built organization with very entrepreneurial advisors and a very entrepreneurial culture.” His first job as CEO will be to listen, he added.
While the technology transition was a pain point at Manulife, Popescu notes that Harbourfront has invested millions in technology under chief technology officer, Leonard Trigg, and can now transition advisor books in less than 45 days.
Bringing McIntyre on the Harbourfront team will allow Popescu as executive chair to focus on M&A. The firm has already quadrupled in size over the past three years, completing four acquisitions in the space of just over a year.
His next goal: to at least triple EBITDA in the next five years.
In 2022, when Harbourfront had $4 billion in AUA, Boston-based Audax Private Equity invested an undisclosed amount in the firm.
Popescu believes the liquidity that comes with private equity investment is one of the reasons Harbourfront’s had such success attracting advisors.
When Audax bought in, all of the dollars that came in through that transaction went to existing shareholders who sold a portion of their shares.
All the advisors who have equity in the firm will have a partial liquidity event again when Audax decides to sell part or all of its stake in Harbourfront, most likely to another private equity firm, Popescu said.
They “[will] get what we call the second bite at the apple in M&A, and then eventually there will be a third bite at the apple. But advisors maintain their independence. …. Nobody comes in to tell them what to do,” he said.
Harbourfront has 60 advisor teams across Canada. It consists of a CIRO-registered dealer, an investment council portfolio manager, an insurance arm and a U.S. SEC registered investment advisory.
This story has been updated to include interviews.