RedBird-backed Arax names CFO Diego Galan COO over operations and M&A

Arax Investment Partners has put operations, technology, M&A and human resources under its chief financial officer, naming Diego Galan chief operating officer while he keeps the CFO title he has held since 2022 at the firm Haig Ariyan founded, concentrating the functions most likely to strain as the partner count rises. The New York platform, backed by RedBird Capital Partners, described the COO post as newly created while saying Galan succeeds John O'Connor, the previous COO, who is moving to Arax's Project Management Office to work on strategic initiatives across the firm.

Ariyan, the founder and chief executive, described the appointment as formalizing work Galan was already doing, saying the two have worked together for many years. "From the outset, he has played a central role in building Arax into what it is today, with leadership that has extended well beyond finance," Ariyan said. "This appointment formalizes the broader role he has executed across the firm since day one."

Arax, a fast-buying platform that makes what it calls strategic control investments in established RIAs and advisor teams, has counted at least seven acquisitions in 2026 while its wealth management business grows past $45 billion in client assets. Four of the year's deals are itemized: Cleveland-based GFP Private Wealth in February, Omni Financial Advisory Group of Poughkeepsie, New York, in March, Coral Gables-based Millares Asset Management, a family-run wealth and tax practice with more than three decades behind it, in June, and a July agreement to buy $3 billion RIA Transcend Capital Advisors of Madison, New Jersey.

Putting dealmaking and the back office that absorbs each deal in one pair of hands concentrates the functions most likely to strain as partner count rises, and the M&A market has been repricing toward exactly that capacity: this publication has argued the premium now reflects integration and post-close operators rather than assets under management alone. Arax's newest service line, added in early October through a partnership with KingsRock, extends the same logic beyond the balance sheet into capital raising and structured financing for client firms.

Galan's background leans toward operations and not just the financial side: close to 20 years across financial services, strategy, operations and technology include co-founding wealth management fintech Bento Engine and serving as its COO, senior leadership roles at Raymond James and Deutsche Bank, and consulting work at Boston Consulting Group.

He frames the change in the language of scale, saying "We have tremendous momentum and an extraordinary opportunity ahead of us" and adding that greater coordination across core functions will let Arax "execute with the discipline and speed our next phase of growth requires." Transcend is the only one of the four named deals whose price the coverage attaches, and it is still described as an agreement rather than a completed purchase; that integration is the first real test of the combined remit.