Rajini Kodialam
Accomplished Entrepreneur, Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer and Board Director with over 25 years of domestic and global experience driving sustainable business growth in financial services. Adept at mergers and acquisitions, international market penetration and expansion, collaborating with entrepreneurs, creating dynamic cross-functional working cultures with beneficial partnerships, talent management including seamless succession planning, and fintech.
Currently, Rajini is Co-Founder, Board Member and Chief Operating Officer of Focus Financial Partners (Nasdaq: FOCS), a leading international partnership of independent, fiduciary wealth management firms. Rajini co-founded and grew the company from a kitchen table concept in 2005 to a leading wealth management partnership with annual revenues of $1B+ and 65+ partner firms with a successful IPO in 2018. Focus partner firms maintain their operational independence, while they benefit from the synergies, scale, economics and best practices offered by Focus to achieve their business objectives. Rajini’s expertise lies in developing an entrepreneurial partnership model with over 3500 wealth management-focused principals and employees and created alignment and a value-added dynamic that motivates and empowers owners of independent wealth management firms. She engineered an expansive ecosystem of alliances with fintech and complementary service providers to turbo charge growth & efficiencies. Rajini also led Focus’ international expansion in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
Prior to founding Focus, Rajini worked at American Express for over seven years, where she managed interactive services for the U.S. Consumer Card and Travel businesses. Under her leadership, American Express dramatically expanded usage and consumer engagement in interactive services for US consumer card and travel clients by building unique capabilities (Manage Your Card Account) and online marketing programs. She also spearheaded technological and product improvements as part of the Strategic Planning Group at American Express including an enhanced Online brokerage (currently part of Ameriprise) and Online banking service launches. Prior to American Express, she was with McKinsey & Company in New York, primarily focused on strategy consulting projects in financial services.
Rajini serves on the board of Focus as well as Smart Asset, a Y-Combinator fintech firm. She was previously on the advisory board of Avendus Wealth. She is a member of the Young President's Organization (YPO) and served on the executive committees for both the Financial Services Network and the Women's Network at YPO. Rajini currently serves on the Impact Committee for 100 Women in Finance and the Fidelity RIA Advisory Council. Rajini was recognized by Crains in their notable list of women in financial advice.
Rajini holds a BA from Delhi University India, a PGDM from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad India, and an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York City.
