Mr Ardino is currently general manager, compliance, at the company and will take over from his father, Lifespan founder John Ardino, and his joint managing director Julien Kanagaratnam.
The licensee’s founder announced the decision to authorised representatives at the Lifespan conference in Sydney today.
“My son has been with Lifespan for eight years, coming in at the height of the sub-prime crisis and during that time he has received very thorough training in administration, full client advice, SOAs, investment research and compliance, business decision-making, networking and has been involved in our PI renewals process,” Mr Ardino said.
“Eugene is passionate about the industry and the real difference that can be made to clients through professional advice. I believe he is a very good man for this job and I’m very proud that he is going to take over as CEO.”
He will be supported by Eugene Serravalle, who will take over as general manager, compliance.
The senior Mr Ardino will become executive chairman of Lifespan and Mr Kanagaratnam will provide ongoing consulting services to the new management team.
“Julien has been with us for 16 of our 20 years and has made a very big contribution to our overall success and our responsive service culture to our advisers and their clients,” the senior Mr Ardino said.
