Envestnet CEO Plans 25% Hiring Boost, Tamarac Rebrand
Envestnet CEO Chris Todd said the firm is on track to meet a 25% increase in hiring in its sales and account management divisions by the end of this year as he continues work to reposition the 25-year-old wealth technology provider in a rapidly changing sector.
Todd, who took over the role in January 2025, said the firm decided to significantly boost headcount to staff client asset onboarding and to meet the needs Envestnet saw for product development in the “coming technological wave.” So far, the firm has reached about 40% of its new-hire goal, with three or four individuals in the pipeline, he said.
“We knew we needed more than we had, and 25%, as we evaluated it last year, seemed like the right number,” he said. “We budgeted that knowing that, if we got to the middle this year and we felt like we needed more, we would just go ‘x’ budget and sort of accelerate that.”
Some of that hiring has gone to Envestnet’s Tamarac wealth platform, a division often known in the industry for investment trading and rebalancing, but also has performance reporting, a client portal, customer relationship management and billing. Todd said the unit became a focus area in his initial evaluations after he was hired by the majority owner, Bain Capital.
“Was there a part [of the firm] where I didn’t like the amount of resources we had allocated to it? Yeah, it’s Tamarac,” Todd said. “And that’s getting fixed in a hurry.”
Berwyn, Pa.-based Envestnet inherited the Tamarac brand name in a 2012 acquisition. That, too, is likely to undergo some changes, with Todd saying the firm is about “75% done with the work” of a rebrand of the division.
“When we’re talking to new prospects … that’s where the brand—our brand architecture—can be a little bit confusing. We’re going to fix the brand architecture, which is going to line up with the technology strategy and make sense to people who don’t know Envestnet that well, or who need to know it better.”
Todd noted his experience with rebrands during his tenure as president of Kronos Incorporated, a workforce management technology company. That firm merged with another to form UKG, where Todd served as CEO for four years.
Todd said his time in that workplace sector showed him the importance of customer service and continual product iteration to meet client needs. He believes in having a strong playbook, including trained employees with clear talking points, for Envestnet’s latest tools and enhancements to actually be used by advisors in the field.
“Some advisors are bleeding-edge adopters, while some of them want to wait six months,” he said. “It goes back to being a service organization, a support organization, the ground game—it’s a big education effort.”
Todd said he also has teams closely tracking and seeking to respond to the ongoing consolidation in the wealth management space. While RIA and broker/dealer M&A creates an opportunity for Envestnet to pick up business, it also puts them at risk of losing out.
“When you are in a consolidating market, you want to make sure that you’re a net winner, right?” he said. “If you’re not the technology on both sides of the transaction, they have a choice, but they have to integrate, so those become sales events.”