Advisor360, Dispatch and Opto Add Senior Technology and Product Leaders

Senior hires at Advisor360, Dispatch and Opto Investments point to three distinct priorities in wealth technology: building AI-focused advisor products, connecting wealth firms’ data and workflows, and improving access to private markets. The appointments add executives with experience at fintech companies, investment managers and wealth platforms as each business develops its products and client services.

Advisor360 adds technology and client leadership

Advisor360 hired Hrishi Dixit as chief technology officer, agentic innovation, and Russ Hughey as vice president of customer success. Dixit will direct technology strategy and oversee development of AI-native products for advisors. Hughey will lead customer success and strategic relationships with the company’s wealth management clients.

Dixit brings more than 30 years of experience in software and fintech. Most recently, he co-founded Autonomy Finance, an AI platform for advisors, and served as its chief technology officer. Before that, he spent nearly a decade as founding CTO of Yieldstreet, now called Willow Wealth. He also held the founding CTO role at LearnVest, which Northwestern Mutual acquired in 2015 before shutting it down in 2018.

The hire also brings Dixit back together with Milind Mehere, founder of both Yieldstreet and AutonomyFinance.ai. Mehere became Advisor360’s chief executive after the company’s board selected him for the top job. That shared history may help connect Advisor360’s product plans with experience building and operating earlier financial technology businesses.

Hughey’s background is centered on client and relationship work. He held senior roles at First Rate, InvestEdge, Vestmark, Advent Software and Charles River Development. In the new position, his remit puts him between Advisor360’s products and the wealth management firms using them: customer success can surface where implementation, service or product changes matter to clients, while strategic relationships help maintain those connections as firms’ needs shift.

“Hrishi and Russ bring experience building technology businesses, modernizing platforms and working directly with financial institutions and advisors,” Mehere said.

Read more: Northwestern Mutual CEO explains decision to close LearnVest

Dispatch connects an operations veteran to its data business

Dispatch, a New York-based data infrastructure startup serving wealth firms, named Patrick Dunne head of wealth and asset management. His appointment gives the company an executive with experience managing operations at a growing advisory firm as Dispatch expands its software for client data and advisor movement.

Dunne was most recently chief operating officer of Hightower Advisors. He led operations during a period of rapid growth, integrated numerous acquisitions and helped launch Hightower Signature Wealth, the firm’s first national direct-to-consumer advisory practice. Last month, Dispatch announced an arrangement with Hightower Advisors to manage client data workflows across the Signature Wealth business. Dunne’s move therefore connects his operating experience at Hightower with Dispatch’s work for that business.

His earlier roles included leadership positions at Jordan Park and LendingClub. He spent much of his career at BlackRock, leading teams across iShares, global markets and securities lending, and serving on the firm’s global operating committee.

At Dispatch, Dunne will advise clients on infrastructure modernization, workflow efficiency and AI adoption. He’ll also work with product and sales teams on the company’s roadmap. That remit spans both client operations and product planning, areas that often need to move together when firms try to replace disconnected systems or manual processes.

“Throughout my career, I’ve seen how fragmented technology and manual processes can limit a firm’s ability to scale, even when the business itself is growing rapidly,” Dunne said.

The appointment follows two product launches. The Dispatch API allows other technology providers to embed the company’s account-opening workflows. Advisor Transitions is software for moving advisors and client assets between firms. Dispatch says it has helped transition more than $20 billion in client assets. It also reports that assets managed by customers on its platform rose from approximately $900 billion to more than $9 trillion over the past year. Those figures describe activity across customer firms; they don’t establish how much of those assets Dispatch itself manages.

Read more: How Dispatch's new software soothes the pain of advisor transitions

Opto builds out product and design

Opto Investments hired Justin Mills as principal product manager and Rachel Hallock as head of design. The New York-based firm provides outsourced chief investment officer services in private markets for wealth managers, family offices and institutions. The appointments add product and design capacity to the technology advisors and CIOs use to bring clients into private markets.

Mills, a CFA charterholder, will lead work on Opto’s technology products. His initial focus is simplifying client onboarding and making it more tailored. At Quellos Capital Management, later acquired by BlackRock, he spent 15 years overseeing risk, research and quantitative analytics products supporting more than $80 billion in hedge fund, private equity and real asset investments. He later built product and program teams at Smartsheet.

Hallock will oversee design across the app advisors and CIOs use to introduce clients to private markets, along with Opto’s internal tools. She has more than 14 years of experience in product design and fintech, including five years at DesignMap. Later, as director of product design at Carta, she led design for the fund administration business as it grew from 300 to 4,000 firms.

Earlier this year, Opto hired Warren Seubel, a former CAIS executive, as vice president of sales and revenue, with a remit to expand its AI-driven private markets platform. The latest appointments add product development and design leadership alongside that sales focus. The practical test will be whether the added expertise produces a simpler client experience while supporting the firm’s growth.

“We’re bringing on senior, seasoned talent to take advantage of the growth that’s ahead of us,” Opto CEO Ryan VanGorder said. “Justin and Rachel will help advisors and CIOs act with confidence on private markets opportunities for their clients, which has been our mission since day one.”