Choreo has appointed Kelly O’Donnell as Chief People and Transformation Officer, creating a new executive position focused on people strategy, communications, acquisition integration and enterprise transformation as the tax-smart wealth management firm continues to expand.
O’Donnell will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Jason Van de Loo.
In the newly created role, she will oversee Choreo’s Human Resources and Brand & Communications functions as well as the firm’s Integration Management Office, which coordinates enterprise integration following acquisitions.
She will also work across Choreo on strategic alignment, organizational change and broader transformation initiatives intended to support the firm’s next stage of growth.
The appointment gives Choreo a senior executive whose responsibilities extend beyond traditional human resources leadership.
By placing HR, communications and acquisition integration under the same executive, the firm is creating a structure intended to coordinate how employees, acquired businesses and corporate strategy come together as Choreo expands.
That can become increasingly important for wealth management firms pursuing growth through acquisitions.
Acquisitions can increase assets, geographic reach, advisor headcount and client relationships, but they also create integration challenges around technology, compensation, organizational structure, branding, operating processes and company culture.
Choreo’s new role is designed in part to address those challenges by creating a central executive responsible for helping different parts of the organization operate around a common strategy.
O’Donnell brings more than 30 years of experience across financial services, consulting and organizational leadership.
She spent 21 years with Financial Engines and Edelman Financial Engines, most recently serving as President of Workplace.
In that position, she led distribution, marketing and strategy for Edelman Financial Engines’ workplace business.
Her experience at the company also included senior roles as Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Risk Officer.
Across those positions, O’Donnell held responsibilities spanning corporate strategy and development, communications, legal and compliance, human resources and risk management.
That breadth of experience gives her exposure to many of the operational functions involved in scaling a financial services organization.
It also aligns with Choreo’s decision to combine several transformation-related responsibilities within the newly created position.
O’Donnell began her career at Coopers & Lybrand, providing her with an accounting background that Choreo views as particularly relevant to its history and strategy.
She later served as Director of Consulting at Cerulli Associates, a research and consulting firm focused on the financial services industry.
O’Donnell holds a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from the University of Missouri.
Choreo believes her experience in accounting and financial services will help support the firm’s strategy of combining tax considerations with broader wealth planning.
The firm has deep roots in the accounting profession.
Choreo was originally launched more than 20 years ago as a subsidiary of one of the country’s largest CPA and professional services firms.
Today, it operates as an independent wealth management business focused on what it describes as tax-smart wealth planning.
That approach is designed around coordinating investment management and financial planning with tax considerations rather than treating those areas as entirely separate parts of a client’s financial life.
Choreo currently operates from more than 40 locations across the United States.
The firm serves more than 7,000 clients and had approximately $28.6 billion in assets under management and advisement as of December 31, 2025.
Its advisors work with individuals and businesses across investment advisory services, financial planning and other wealth management needs.
The company is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment adviser.
For Choreo, creating a Chief People and Transformation Officer role reflects the increasing organizational complexity that can accompany growth in the wealth management industry.
Large advisory firms increasingly compete not only on investment performance and financial planning capabilities but also on their ability to recruit and retain advisors, integrate acquired firms, maintain consistent client experiences and build technology and operating systems that can scale.
Acquisition integration can be particularly important.
Independent advisory businesses often have their own cultures, client service models, technology systems and internal processes before joining a larger organization.
Maintaining the strengths of those businesses while creating a consistent enterprise platform requires coordination across employees, communications, technology, branding and management.
O’Donnell’s responsibility for the Integration Management Office places her directly within that process.
The office coordinates integration following acquisitions, while her broader responsibility for HR and communications could help align employees and leadership around those changes.
Her role will also include enterprise transformation initiatives beyond acquisitions.
That could involve helping different business functions execute against shared priorities as Choreo continues developing its operating platform.
Van de Loo highlighted O’Donnell’s experience across strategy, operations, client experience and human resources as important to the appointment.
He also emphasized her understanding of accounting and financial services as a connection to Choreo’s CPA heritage.
Choreo sees the intersection between tax and wealth management as a central part of its differentiation.
Clients with increasingly complex financial situations may need investment, estate, tax, business and other planning decisions to be coordinated rather than addressed independently.
That is especially relevant for business owners, executives and affluent households whose investment decisions can have significant tax consequences.
As Choreo grows, maintaining that coordinated advisory model across a larger organization becomes an operational challenge as well as a financial planning one.
O’Donnell will be tasked with helping make that growth feel consistent across the firm.
She described the opportunity as one of bringing Choreo’s people together around a shared direction while preserving the characteristics that distinguish the organization.
That focus suggests her role will include not only operational integration but also cultural integration as the firm evolves.
The appointment also reflects a broader trend across wealth management in which firms are investing more heavily in centralized leadership around people, integration and transformation.
As advisory businesses become larger and more institutionalized, executive teams increasingly require leaders capable of managing organizational change alongside traditional financial and operating functions.
O’Donnell’s combination of experience across financial services, strategy, human resources, risk, communications and corporate development gives Choreo a leader whose background spans many of those areas.
For Choreo, the newly created position is intended to help ensure that acquisitions and other growth initiatives translate into a cohesive enterprise rather than a collection of independently operating businesses.
The firm will also be relying on O’Donnell to support its employees through that growth while maintaining the tax-oriented advisory positioning that remains central to Choreo’s strategy.
KEY QUOTES:
“Kelly brings the experience and perspective we need as Choreo enters its next phase. She has led teams across strategy, operations, client experience and human resources, and she understands how those capabilities need to come together to support growth. Her background in accounting and financial services also gives her a strong appreciation for Choreo’s CPA roots and our vision for delivering more coordinated advice at the intersection of tax and wealth.”
Jason Van de Loo, Chief Executive Officer of Choreo
“What attracted me to Choreo was the opportunity to help shape a growing organization at an important point in its development. Choreo has a clear sense of where it wants to go. My role is to help bring its people together around that direction, preserve what makes the firm distinctive and make growth feel coherent rather than disruptive.”
Kelly O’Donnell, Chief People and Transformation Officer of Choreo
