Caldwell Recruits Chief Compliance Officer for Canaccord Genuity Group
May 1, 2025 – The chief compliance officer is a corporate executive within the C-suite responsible for overseeing and managing regulatory compliance issues within an organization. The CCO typically reports to the CEO of the chief legal officer. The responsibilities of the chief compliance officer include: Leading enterprise compliance efforts; designing and implementing internal controls, policies, and procedures to ensure compliance with applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations, as well as third-party guidelines; managing audits and investigations into regulatory and compliance issues; responding to requests for information from regulatory bodies; and promoting a culture of compliance and ethical behavior within the organization.
In recent months, executive search firms have been busy recruiting chief compliance officer for all types of organizations. Just recently, Jeff Freeborough, Glenn Buggy, Lindsay Schoen Lane, and Eric Mok of Toronto-based Caldwell have placed Neal Weston as chief compliance officer, Canada, for Canaccord Genuity Group.
Over the past two decades Mr. Weston been focused on financial services regulation and compliance, helping firms address regulatory developments covering market manipulation, conflicts of interest, suitability, disputes and complaints management, over-the-counter derivatives, anti-money laundering, sanctions management, and regulatory risk management. He specializes in closing the gaps between unprecedented regulatory change, financial markets demands and client priorities, making strategic risk-based solutions.
Mr. Weston most recently served as AVP and chief compliance officer (wealth management compliance) at Sun Life. Prior to that, he was chief compliance officer for Scotia Securities Inc. and Tangerine Investment Funds Ltd. at Scotiabank, following his role as director, trade surveillance and prime services at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets. Mr. Weston also served as trustee and treasurer of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Foundation, and as chief compliance officer at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., Canada Branch. Earlier in his career, he held the position of vice president, CAMLO & chief privacy officer at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Canada, and VP, Financial markets compliance at National Bank.
Through its principal subsidiaries, Canaccord Genuity Group is an independent, full-service financial services firm, with operations in two principal segments of the securities industry: wealth management and capital markets. Since its establishment in 1950, the company has generated value for its individual, institutional and corporate clients through comprehensive investment solutions, brokerage services and investment banking services. Canaccord Genuity Group has wealth management offices located in Canada, the U.K., Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, and Australia. The company’s international capital markets division operates in North America, the U.K. and Europe, Asia, and Australia. Canaccord Genuity Group is publicly traded under the symbol CF on the TSX.
Mr. Freeborough is managing partner of Caldwell’s Toronto office and is a member of the firm’s leader team. He is a key member of the financial services and professional services practices, and is also an active member of the data, digital and technology, and private equity and venture capital practice teams. Mr. Freeborough specializes in building management teams and boards of directors with an emphasis on transformation – specifically surrounding growth, scale-up, ownership transition, financing/capitalization, transaction, restructuring, and culture shift.
Mr. Buggy is a managing partner and co-head of Caldwell’s global financial services practice. In addition he leads the firm’s legal, risk and regulatory oversight practice, focusing his search work in the financial services legal, compliance, regulatory risk, anti-financial crimes and data protection/privacy areas. In addition, Mr. Buggy is a senior member of Caldwell’s asset & wealth management practice, managing relationships with global investment management and advisory firms.
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Ms. Lane is a principal in Caldwell’s financial services, asset & wealth management and legal, risk & regulatory oversight practices. Her focus is with wealth management platform businesses, as well as with investment managers recruiting corporate, functional and product & solutions leaders. In addition, Ms. Lane recruits senior executives in various financial services functions including: legal, compliance, anti-financial crimes, regulatory risk and governance. She has also worked as part of Caldwell’s consumer, commercial banking and board & CEO practices, and is building the firm’s offering to the institutional custody and clearing market.
Mr. Mok as a partner in Caldwell’s financial services practice and a member of the Toronto office. With more than 25 years of experience in investment banking and wealth management, he has strong corporate relationships, strategic advisory skills and a deep understanding of the public markets across many sectors including banking, insurance, real estate, asset management, technology, energy infrastructure and diversified industry groups. Mr. Mok’s overall experience provides him with a wide network of C-suite relationships in corporate Canada.
Compliance Recruiting
Finding senior leadership within the compliance function is exceedingly complex today, as companies face intense pressure under the current regulatory environment. Leaders must be able to foster close collaboration between compliance and other corporate functions as well as communicate to a more complex and sophisticated set of stakeholders, internally and externally.
According to a recent Heidrick & Struggles report, sharply rising demand for compliance talent, the absence of a clear career path in the discipline and greater need for compliance executives with leadership and influencing skills are creating difficult challenges for organizations seeking to identify and retain talent in a world of increasing regulation.
“The demand is so great for internal auditor and compliance executives that recruiters are looking outside the financial services industry for candidates,” said Michael P. Kelly, president of New York-based Michael Kelly & Associates, which specializes in financial services. “The skill-sets are transferrable but there is a learning curve to understand the sector they are auditing.”
Maurice Gilbert, managing partner of Dallas-based Conselium, a boutique search firm that specializes in recruiting compliance professionals, has also seen a major uptick in activity, particularly for chief compliance officers.
“About nine years ago companies that were in highly regulated industries like financial services, medical devices and pharmaceuticals saw a critical need to bulk up in the compliance area,” said Mr. Gilbert.
The result: Mr. Gilbert has seen a 20 percent, year-over-year growth rate for compliance professionals as a direct result of ongoing or potential measures being taken by the U.S. government to investigate companies they potentially deem as having behaved improperly or who have not been compliant with new regulatory measures.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
