Arax names Diego Galan COO, adding operations and M&A to his CFO remit

Arax Investment Partners has folded its chief operating officer role into the finance chief's remit, naming Diego Galan to the post while he keeps the CFO title he has held since the firm's 2022 founding. The move puts Galan over operations, technology, M&A and human resources, the four functions that determine whether a newly acquired RIA becomes a working part of the wealth management platform or another signed deal awaiting integration.

Arax describes itself as a wealth management platform making strategic control investments in established RIAs and advisor teams, a model in which operations and technology absorb the acquired practice, human resources decides who stays, and M&A decides what gets bought next. Rather than hire a separate operating chief, the firm chose to keep the COO chair inside the CFO's office, a structure that suggests Arax expects coordination between finance and integration to matter more than standalone depth in either.

Founder and CEO Haig Ariyan said in the announcement that he and Galan have "worked together for many years and have long shared the vision for building this firm," adding that the appointment "formalizes the broader role he has executed across the firm since day one." That reads like the formal title catching up to a founder-era CFO at a platform that has been assembling itself deal by deal.

John O'Connor, the outgoing COO, moves to a leadership role inside Arax's Project Management Office, focused on executing key strategic initiatives across the firm. The announcement gives no reason for the change beyond the transition itself, and O'Connor stays inside the company.

Galan's résumé runs through the operating side of the industry rather than the advisory side: he co-founded and served as COO of Bento Engine, a wealth management fintech, and earlier held senior roles at Raymond James and Deutsche Bank and consulted at Boston Consulting Group. Arax credits him with nearly two decades spanning financial services, strategy, operations and technology, the profile of someone hired to run machinery rather than markets.

The appointment lands days after Arax added private capital markets services to its client offering through a partnership with KingsRock, which brought capital raising, structured financing and strategic advisory to Arax clients. The two firms named no price and no equity stake, so the capabilities arrived without a balance sheet moving.

PWD has argued that the premium in RIA consolidation has shifted toward integration capacity and post-close operators rather than the assets themselves, and Galan's appointment puts one executive over both the balance sheet and the machinery a new deal gets plugged into. Galan's own framing points at execution speed: greater coordination across core business functions, he said, will let Arax "execute with the discipline and speed our next phase of growth requires." The next few closings will show whether one person can hold finance and operations while the buying continues.