RBC Names New Recruiting Head for U.S. Wealth Business

RBC Wealth Management-U.S. has named Kristen Kimmell, a senior executive with almost 25 years of experience at the firm, to oversee advisor recruiting. 

Kimmell, who was most recently chief of staff to RBC Wealth CEO Michael Armstrong, is tasked with stepping up recruiting and increasing diversity in the firm’s brokerage ranks, which now includes around 1,900 advisors, the Royal Bank of Canada unit said on Thursday. 

Kimmell began her career at RBC predecessor Dain Bosworth in 1995 as an accounting supervisor. (RBC acquired the Minneapolis regional broker-dealer in 2000.)

Both the number of recruits and the level of their production have increased two-and-a-half times from three years ago, Kimmell said in an interview, noting that she wants to keep up that momentum while adding more women to teams and management.

“All branch directors and complex directors responsible for recruiting have stepped up their game in telling our story,’ Kimmell said

In her new post, she replaces Michael Parker, who left RBC after 16 months in March to become Northeast head of recruiting at Rockefeller Capital Management.

Kimmell has been RBC Wealth’s chief of staff since 2010, according to a firm biography that described the role as “a combined chief administrative officer and chief operating officer.” She also oversaw credit strategies and business development for the bank-owned wealth management firm. 

Armstrong in a prepared statement touted Kimmell’s “out-of-the-box thinking and ability to bring together teams” as a key to her career success.

“She’s very bright, a quick study, capable and someone you can have a beer with,” said a branch manager who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The new role positions Kimmell as one of the few women in the wealth management industry  to run recruiting, the company said, and comes as diversity has become a major focus of hiring. (Katherine Mauzy heads recruiting at Edward Jones, the largest firm by broker headcount.)

RBC has grown its female advisors by 23% in the past two years to around 300, and the number of women in branch management has doubled in that period, Kimmell said. 

In recent weeks RBC has hired brokers from wirehouses in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Georgia.