Rise Growth Partners, RIA investment company launched by former United Capital CEO Joe Duranhas added Jennifer Geoghegan as chief marketing officer and Tony Ling as managing investment partner.

Geoghegan joins from Circle Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor in Summit, NJ, where she was chief operating officer. Prior to that, she served as the first CMO at The Colony Group, a Focus Financial Partners firm.

At Rise, she will oversee marketing activities for the broader organization and its partner firms, including strategy and brand development, with the goal of driving revenue growth for its RIA partners.

Ling was primarily a managing director at Corsair Capital, a private equity firm focused on the financial services space. Before that, he worked at Lightyear Capital and JPMorgan.

At Rise, he will use his experience in transaction management and industry contacts to help potential partners execute their mergers and acquisitions. He will also work with partner firms to drive follow-on M&A, including building finance and strategy functions.

Last September, Duran, who sold his company, United Capital, to Goldman Sachs in 2019, revealed details about his new venture. Rise Growth will acquire approximately 30% stake in next-generation RIAs with between $1 billion and $7 billion in AUM. In return, it will provide capital and growth resources to help them become national RIA platforms with $10 billion or more in assets.

In February, the firm said it had raised $250 million in funding from its management team and Charlesbank Capital Partners, the middle-market private equity firm that also backs Lido Advisors. Charlesbank will take a majority stake in the new company.

Duran has been building his management team over the past few months. In October, he brought Terry Kallsen as managing partner and team leader of the operating partnership. In Aprill, the firm hired Stacy Coffey, a former senior vice president of wealth strategies at Wealth Enhancement Group, as managing director and head of advisory partnerships. He too caught by Will Armentaa co-founder of Opto Investments earlier this year as managing director, who is working alongside Brian Shenson, managing partner and COO, to help firms fill gaps in their existing technology and operating platforms.

Rise Growth is one of a handful of new firms focused on taking minority stakes in RIAs. Karl Heckenberg, former CEO of Emigrant Partners, launched his own private equity firm, Constellation Wealth Capital, in late 2023. taking stakes in seven firms to date.

Just this week, Jim Dickson, founder and former CEO of Sanctuary Wealth, announced launch of Elevation Point, an investment firm he says will take minority stakes in RIAs with $200 million to $3 billion in client assets and help those firms grow. Working with Mark Penske, founder and chairman of United Atlantic Capital and son of legendary race car driver and team owner Roger Penske, Elevation Point acquired Mount Yale Capital Group, an RIA and Chief Investment Officer with $3.4 billion in assets under management, to build the firm's infrastructure.