Investment platform builder looks to boost access to non-traditional assets. Clearbrook Financial has hired former Merrill Lynch executive Bob Alderman to head distribution and development of the firm's alternative-investment programs.

Alderman was "one of the key drivers" of Merrill's HedgeAccess hedge-fund program, says Clearbrook.

More on the table

"We believe a carefully-crafted alternative-investment program allows us to enhance the comprehensive services we deliver, giving advisors and their clients unique investment options imperative to success in today's financial markets," says John Galvin, president of Clearbrook Financial and head of Clearbrook Advisors, a research, platform-design and distribution-consulting business aimed at investment-platform sponsors and advisories of all sizes and types. "Bob's vast experience in the alternative space will enable us to deliver solutions specifically geared to the needs of independent advisors and their clients."

Clearbrook Advisors also provides consulting services to asset managers looking to gain market share from independent advisors.

Galvin joined Clearbrook in mid 2007. Before that, he was head of Merrill's Consults separately managed account (SMA) distribution program.

"The addition of hedge funds, managed-futures funds and private equity complements our current stable of approximately 200 (SMA) mandates," says Clearbrook's CEO John Morris -- who ran Merrill's international Selects consulting program for part of the time Galvin was head of U.S.-targeted Consults. "As assets continue to flow into separately managed accounts and alternatives, I believe Clearbrook will become the gateway for those advisors looking to broaden and differentiate their product offering."

Clearbrook administers about $10 billion in assets. Based in Princeton, N.J., it has offices in Boston, Stamford, Conn., and Wayne, Pa. -FWR

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