Mark Tibergien

CAREER HISTORY & IMPACT

Mark Tibergien is a nationally recognized expert on management, strategy, and transition issues within the financial services industry. Mark’s professional background spans Executive Leadership, Consulting, Training, Writing, and Speaking. He has led organizations from start-up to exit, from dynamic growth to turn-around. Most notable is the merger of a training and consulting firm into Moss Adams LLP; the growth of Moss Adams into the leading authority on practice management for RIAs and broker/dealers; and the positioning of Pershing LLC to become one of the top three custody providers to RIAs and Family Offices in the United States.

He currently serves as an independent director of Pathstone, a $20 billion multi-family office business and RIA; and as an Advisory Board Member of Commonwealth Financial Network, an Independent Broker/Dealer. Most recently, in 2021 Mark was appointed Advisor In Residence to Ernst & Young’s Wealth & Asset Management group, an advisory role to help shape strategy, especially as it relates to the RIA segment of the market.

From 2008 to 2020, Mark served as Chief Executive Officer of Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC, an affiliate of Pershing LLC and a division of The Bank of New York Mellon. The company provides custody, clearing and execution services to Family Offices, Wealth Management, and Investment Management firms. Under Mark’s leadership Pershing’s RIA Custody Business grew from $40 Billion of AUC in 2010 to more than $800 billion of AUC by the end of 2019. Mark served as a member of Pershing LLC’s Executive Committee; a member of BNY Mellon’s Senior Leadership Committee; BNY Mellon N.A.’s Executive Committee, and a Member of BNY Mellon’s CEO’s Advisory Council on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

Prior to joining Pershing, he was a principal in the accounting and consulting firm, Moss Adams LLP, where he was Partner-in-Charge of the Business Consulting Group, Chairman of the Securities Industry Group, and Partner-in-Charge of the Business Valuation Group. While at Moss Adams, he introduced the first industry benchmarking studies for both RIAs and

Broker/Dealers, all of which has been adopted or replicated by other leading custodians and fund companies.

He also wrote the industry’s first book on valuing, buying, and selling advisory practices which helped set the stage for the rapid increase in M&A activity within this space. At the time, Moss Adams was one of the leading consolidators of accounting firms in the Western U.S. with the goal of achieving market dominance serving middle market companies.

He joined Management Advisory Services (MAS), Inc. in 1986 and became its president in 1989. He led the merger of MAS into Moss Adams in 1994. MAS provided financial management workshops to closely held business owners throughout the US. The firm also specialized in valuation of closely held businesses. In addition to his role as executive head of the firm, Mark was a workshop and seminar instructor for banks and businesses while also building the valuation practice into one of the leading providers in the Pacific Northwest.

Beginning in 1975, Mark was a vice president, director of Willamette Management Associates, Inc., an RIA which provided investment research, investment management and business valuation services throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Prior to his transition directly into the financial services industry, Mark was a writer for Investment Dealers’ Digest in Chicago. Previously, he worked as a general assignment newspaper and radio reporter in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

EDUCATION

He received his formal education from Bay College and the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, where he majored in communications and journalism. He received his professional education from hands-on leadership roles within companies that provided tax and accounting services, financial management training, investment research, business valuation and consulting on strategy, structure, people, and process.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

At its 20th Anniversary Celebration at the New York Stock Exchange in 2019, W!SE (Working in Support of Education) recognized Mark for his efforts to promote financial literacy in public schools. He was also named Bay College’s Alumnus of the Year for 2008.

In 2017, a survey by Investment Advisor magazine recognized Mark as “The Most Influential Person in Financial Services.” The magazine recognized him as one of the “25 Most Influential People” in the financial services industry 15 times. Investment News recognized Mark in 2016 in its inaugural list of Icons & Innovators. In 2003 and 2008, Financial Planning magazine recognized him as a “Mover & Shaker” in their annual review of industry professionals.

BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS

He is the author of four books published by Bloomberg Press/Wiley & Sons: Practice Made Perfect (2005) and How to Value, Buy or Sell a Financial Advisory Practice (2006); Practice

(Made) More Perfect (2010) and The Enduring Advisory Firm (2016). Tibergien also wrote as a monthly columnist on business management topics for Investment Advisor/Think Advisor over the course of 17 years.

MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY

Tibergien is known as a practitioner of what he preaches with deep experience in strategy, human capital, and financial management of closely held businesses. He has consistently demonstrated a commitment to people development and succession planning having helped numerous individuals achieve leadership roles within their current firms or at companies who recruited from the deep benches he created.

As an example, in building Pershing Advisor Solutions, his focus on diversity and inclusion resulted his business having a workforce comprised of 51% women and 42% people of color. He implemented a disciplined succession process which transpired over his last five years with a systematic development effort focused on five individuals. From this pool, his ultimate successor was selected, while the others were assigned additional roles and responsibilities in the firm that recognized their personal growth.

He has coached hundreds of individuals inside and outside the firms where he has worked. He was a founding member of the Reverse Mentoring Program at Pershing and has served as a coach to others building comparable businesses in the U.K., Australia, and Singapore markets.

OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES

Mark is Chair of the Workforce Development Committee at the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning whose mission is to promote diversity in the advisory profession and financial planning as a career choice.

Mark is also the primary sponsor for the financial literacy summer camp for elementary and middle school students, and the high school course at Gladstone Area Schools, in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula.