Kenneth “Buzz” West, chairman of expanding wealth manager and Financial Planner Kingswood, has retired.

Mr West served on the board of Kingswood for other seven years, including five as chairman. He will continue as a consultant with the firm for six months.

David Hudd will become acting chairman whilst the search for a new chairman continues. Mr Hudd joined the Kingswood board in 2018 and was previously deputy CEO and a partner of global law firm Hogan Lovells.

Patrick Goulding, group chief financial officer, is also leaving the firm. He led the Kingswood business for two years, initially as platform CEO and latterly as group CFO.

Mr Goulding will be replaced by Jon Millam from 1 August. Mr Millam joins from Equiniti where it is currently finance director group FP&A, having previously been the finance director for Equiniti Financial Services and EQ Invest. Prior to Equiniti, he undertook senior finance roles at American Express and British Airways.

David Lawrence, UK chief executive officer at Kingswood, said: “Kingswood has ambitious plans to accelerate both inorganic and organic growth across the business.

“In Jon, I am delighted to have found someone that not only shares this ambition, but also has all the credentials to capably lead our finance function through the next stage in our evolution. I am thrilled that Jon will be joining us and this appointment adds to the high-quality executive hires made during 2020 as we take the business rapidly forward.”