Industry Vet Sonnen Joins Coldstream Wealth as COO

He is also being tasked with "simplifying the onboarding of future merger partners as the firm's growth accelerates," it added.

The firm's operations, information technology, performance reporting, client service and Salesforce CRM teams will report to Sonnen. He will report to Kevin Fitzwilson, the firm's managing shareholder.

"Based on his experience, reputation and unique leadership skills, he could have joined any firm in the industry, but the fact that he decided to join ours is a further testament to the strength of Coldstream's culture and the extent to which our employee ownership model has turned heads across the industry," Fitzwilson said.

The streamlining of the firm's operations "will not only benefit our current advisors but allow us to more seamlessly incorporate future merger partners as we continue to ramp up our long-term growth strategy," Fitzwilson said in a statement.

Sonnen said he was "initially intrigued to learn how Coldstream achieved its size, quality and growth prospects without taking on private equity money. "Then, after I began to learn more about Coldstream's unique vision and values, I became even more interested in becoming a part of the team."

He said in an emailed statement that while PFI Advisors no longer offers one-on-one consulting services, the COO Society he founded is still active, and his COO Roundtable podcast will continue under the Coldstream brand.