Black Diamond adds a Fidelity veteran to its sales team

Brooke’s Note: The last couple of years have been tough because the economy and the markets have been unforgiving. Into the teeth of this headwind, Black Diamond is growing with a vengeance. It now has 190 clients with 115,000 accts and $40 Billion of assets under management. Read: Black Diamond is winning big accounts from Advent at an impressive clip. Now it’s quietly deepening its talent pool.

Black Diamond Performance Reporting hired another RIA custody veteran in a bid to create a staff that fulfills the company’s promise to provide a consultative approach to selling technology.

The Jacksonville, Fla.-based maker of portfolio management systems announced today that it made Karen Lisowski its vice president of sales for the western third of the United States.

The hire follows closely on Black Diamond’s addition of Schwab Advisor Services executive, David Welling, who joined as chief solutions officer earlier this year. He oversees sales, marketing and product management for Black Diamond. See Former Schwab veteran lands with Black Diamond

Lisowski left her position as vice president of retirement plan sales and relationship management to registered investment advisors at Fidelity Investments to join Black Diamond.

Senior roles

During her 13 years at Fidelity, Ms. Lisowski also held senior roles in technology consulting and product management for Fidelity’s RIA division.

Lisowski will be responsible for calling on RIA sales prospects and for fostering strong relationships with RIA custodians to encourage referrals.

“Karen has a great depth of experience working with advisors and helping them improve their productivity and scalability through technology,” said Reed Colley, president and CEO of Black Diamond Performance Reporting.

Hiring custodial veterans is a good strategy, according to Jim Starcev, the Overland park, Kan.-based former principal of Etelligent Consulting, a software company that was sold to Schwab Performance Technologies.

Good 'in’ to land RIAs

“Fidelity and Schwab are the two largest custodians. Having people that worked for both of them gives you a good ‘in’ to land RIAs as customers,” he says. “The more clients you have, the better you can support software cost and make service bureaus more profitable. Investing in growth is a smart strategy.”

Lisowski says her experience with Fidelity made her believe in Black Diamond’s prospects for growth.

“I’ve consulted directly with some of the largest RIAs and breakaway teams in my former roles and have seen the operational leverage advisory firms gain through outsourcing,” she says. “I’m looking forward to continuing to support these efforts and contribute to the growing momentum of Black Diamond in the industry.”