Former Mattioli director Mark Smith has been appointed CEO at pensions and SIPP fintech Gaudi.

He will take over from Patrick Vaughan this week as Mr Vaughan moves to a new role at The Investment and Savings Alliance (TISA).

Mr Smith has worked in wealth management for 35 years and was a director for 10 years at Mattioli Woods, responsible for the firm’s operational delivery including the integration of 20  businesses into the group. In 2019, he and a colleague established Truinvest a financial advice group which acquired several financial advice firms. He sold this business earlier this year.

Mr Vaughan has been CEO at Gaudi for the past 15 years and has driven the firm’s expansion in providing white labelled technology to build SIPPs and tax wrappers. 

Gaudi chairman Clifton Melvin said “Mark brings propositional expertise and extensive knowledge of the financial services market – particularly SIPPs, technology, distribution and FCA compliance rules. The board and I are pleased he has joined us to drive Gaudi forward.”

Mr Melvin added: “Patrick Vaughan has been critical to the development of Gaudi. His drive and hard work have made the firm what it is today – a leading white label provider of  administration, technology and technical expertise with 12,500 SIPPs and 150,000 ISAs under management in our head office in Salisbury. We are sad to see Patrick move on but Gaudi wish him every success in his future endeavours to improve financial services provision.” Mr Melvin is a former CEO of Winterthur Life is currently also the chair of Unum UK.

Mr Smith said: “I am delighted to be joining the team at Gaudi and looking forward to help drive the business forward with both its existing and new partners. Gaudi’s reputation for technical expertise and as a modern, forward thinking ‘tech led’ SIPP provider has put them in a unique position in the marketplace with huge opportunity ahead.”

Mr Vaughan said: "Whilst I am sorry to be leaving Gaudi, I do so at a time when they are being described as the ‘go to’ firm for fintechs and financial services companies looking to launch innovative financial products. My new role in The Investment and Savings Alliance (TISA) is to focus on improving transfer times at a time when financial services companies  are taking advantage of open finance. 

“The Pensions Dashboard is the first stage of this process and I will assist TISA members in this rapidly changing environment."

New business partners of Gaudi include national financial adviser Foster Denovo, fintechs Seccl, Wombat, Circa5000, Clearview and stockbroker Jarvis.