Pershing announced that COO Lori Hardwick has left the firm, after only 11 months as the #2 executive at the Jersey City, NJ-based firm. Pershing is a subsidiary of BNY Mellon. Hardwick was named to the post, effective 2/29/16, succeeding 26-year Pershing veteran Lisa Dolly, who was named CEO two weeks earlier. Dolly, in turn, was succeeding Ron DeCicco, who retired.

Longevity is common to the BNY Mellon culture, so Ms. Hardwick’s departure was an apparent surprise. A Pershing spokesperson said the company was taking steps to replace Hardwick in the COO position.

Hardwick came to Pershing from Envestnet, which she joined in 2000 and at which she held a variety of positions - the last of which was group president of advisory services. Upon her hiring at Pershing, Dolly said in a statement that Hardwick “brings many years of investment, technology and advisory expertise to Pershing and will help us deliver solutions which empower clients and improve the advisor and investor experience."

Perhaps the biggest issue that Ms. Hardwick had to deal with was the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, which she called a “kick in the pants" to the industry.

Hardwick was named to Investment Advisor’s IA 25 list of the most influential people in the industry in 2016, in which we called her "Pershing's Advisor Advocate."

In an interview for the May 2016 issue, she said that with the industry “changing so fast and having so many different constituents across the advisor landscape,” she said, it’s important for leaders to understand that “every client’s important,” and that their role is to help each client build “their own practice their own way.”