After more than eight years with BNY Mellon | Pershing, Lisa Crafford has taken a position as managing director and head of advisory at Karl Heckenberg’s new wealth management-focused capital investment firm, Constellation Wealth Capital.
Previously a director and head of business consulting with Pershing, Crafford was joined in the move by Pershing’s former Director of Technology Consulting Morgan McGovern, who will serve as a managing director in advisory. The pair left Pershing over the summer, following the departure of co-head of Wealth Solutions Maura Creekmore earlier in the year. (Creekmore is now chief administrative officer at Broadridge Financial.)
In August, Karl Heckenberg, who stepped down as CEO of Emigrant Partners in April, started raising capital to launch his own private equity fund to buy up RIAs under his own investment model, according to published reports. Constellation applied to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September and is still within a 120-day approval period.
In her new role, Crafford will collaborate with partner firms to help them grow through consultation, coaching and creating communities, per her LinkedIn page. McGovern will focus on helping firms to “streamline” their technology stacks and integrations, according to LinkedIn.
In her most recent role with Pershing, Crafford helped the firm's RIA custody clients grow their businesses. She has been a regular speaker at industry events, including Wealth Management EDGE, on topics such as attracting next-gen talent, pathways to leadership, mergers and acquisitions and other relevant topics.
Crafford also worked closely with WealthManagement.com’s research arm, WMIQ, on research projects such as Next: The Wealth Management Firm of the Future, a multifaceted look at wealth management firms of the future—including how they’re growing, what they’re prioritizing and where talent is being sourced.
Before joining Pershing in 2015 as a vice president of relationship management, she was a director of business management with Washington, D.C.-based registered investment advisory firm FJY Financial, where she oversaw operations, compliance, technology, human capital, finance, marketing and business strategy. She also founded Cogent Business Advisors, a study group for chief operations officers, and is the coordinator for Bob Veres’ practice management conference COO track.
Before McGovern joined Pershing in 2017, she spent three years as a corporate relations specialist with the CFP Board. Prior to that, she worked with Crafford at FJY, where she spent time as a paraplanner and then an associate financial advisor.