GPA Key Officers
GPA’s executive team is made up of leaders in the retail securities industry who have the expertise required to interpret the complexities of the world’s ever-changing financial marketplace, and rapidly expand our capabilities as our clients’ needs for creative, customized solutions evolve.
Jim Putnam, CEO
Jim Putnam entered his 27th year in the securities industry in 2006. He began his securities career as a retail representative with Dean Witter Reynolds in 1979.
Mr. Putnam was involved in the formation and launch of Global Portfolio Advisors (GPA), an international brokerage firm, in 1998. He has served on the Board of Directors since its inception and was appointed to the position of CEO in 2004. GPA currently operates in Luxembourg, Germany, Canada and Austria.
Mr. Putnam joined LPL Financial Services in 1983, and held several senior positions in the firm in the following areas: compliance, investment products, corporate marketing, sales management and business development. In 1987, Mr. Putnam was promoted to the position of National Sales Manager, overseeing the firm’s recruiting, marketing, product marketing, advisory sales, and service divisions, and held that position until his promotion to Vice Chairman and a member of the firm’s Board of Directors in 2005. Under his leadership in these areas the firm grew from $40 million in revenues to over $1.4 billion. Mr. Putnam is a graduate of Western Illinois University. He holds the series 4, 7, 24 and 63 licenses.
Mark Gorham, President
Mark Gorham is the President of Global Portfolio Advisors (GPA). He was recruited by GPA from Hewlett Packard (HP) and started in August, 2005.
Prior to GPA, Mr. Gorham worked for 24 years in the Information Technology industry, at Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation, and at HP. He held senior management positions in Engineering, Services, and Sales. Mr. Gorham managed divisions with revenues of up to $4 billion and profits of up to $500 million. He has significant experience managing organizations in the United States, Europe, and has built a successful development organization in India. His technology focus was delivering complex, highly scalable mission critical systems to multinationals, governments, and large national companies.
Mr. Gorham has extensive experience working with financial institutions, including long term projects with the Swiss Stock Exchange, the German Stock Exchange, the Australian Stock exchange, many international banks, and financial service bureaus including Reuters and Lloyds Registry. He consulted with LPL’s former Chairman, Todd Robinson, and helped LPL start their IT system migration to standard, web based technology. Most recently, Mr. Gorham was the senior corporate officer for Hewlett Packard architecting the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Mr. Gorham has a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelors of Science in Theoretical Mathematics from Bates College.
Todd Robinson, Chairman
Todd Robinson is the Chairman of Global Portfolio Advisors (GPA). He launched GPA, an international brokerage and clearing firm, in 1998. GPA currently operates in Luxembourg, Germany, Canada and Austria.
Mr. Robinson has more than 25 years experience in financial services, starting his career at Smith Barney in 1981. In 1985 he became CEO of Linsco Financial Group. In 1989 he became Chairman and CEO of Linsco Private Ledger Corporation (LPL), after merging with Private Ledger Financial Services, Inc. For 20 years LPL enjoyed a compound annual growth rate of 41%, and accomplished many firsts in the independent industry including:
- The first firm to launch a fee based asset management program
- The first firm to launch a web based front end workstation
- The first firm to pass $1 billion in revenues
- The first firm to have over $100 billion of assets in custody
- The largest independent self clearing firm
- The only firm to be the largest independent firm for 10 consecutive years
LPL currently operates as a licensed broker dealer and registered investment advisor and has over 6400 financial advisors in 4000 locations in the United States.
In October of 2005, Mr. Robinson sold LPL to a consortium of private equity groups and retained the title of Chairman Emeritus.
Mr. Robinson also has served the financial industry on various regulatory panels. On a regional level, Mr. Robinson served on the Chairman of the District Business Conduct Committee for the Northeastern United States. At the national level, Mr. Robinson served on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Securities Dealers Regulatory for seven years and as its Chairman for five years.
To learn more about our technology and services, download our comprehensive overview in printable PDF format.
GPA Overview
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