HB monogramHOLLYBRAGDON

Executive advisory & leadership for consequential change

Your business has changed.
The way it operates hasn’t.

As organizations grow, acquire, modernize or become more complex, the operating model often lags behind. I help leadership determine what needs to change and lead what comes next.

Asset managers  Wealth & RIA firms  Investment platforms

Holly Bragdon in a light-filled interior

BUILT AND LED AT SCALE

$350B
AUM supported across a complex investment platform
~$75M
operating budget
M&A. Data. Technology. Operations.
Across growth, integration, transformation, and scale.
>99%
reduction in manual exceptions
Within 90 days
36% fewer data errors and ~50% improvement in operating efficiency
40% lower employee turnover
Within one year
Zero Exceptions
Five consecutive SOC 1 reports
When I become valuable

Some moments expose the gap between what the business has become and what comes next.

Growth & Complexity

Growth has outpaced the model built to support it.

M&A Integration

The deal closed. The organizations still haven’t become one.

Technology + AI

Technology and AI are moving faster than the organization can adapt.

Data & Governance

The data is there. Trust, ownership and governance aren’t.

Clarity

The symptoms are visible. The real problem isn’t.

Selected work

Real challenges. Meaningful outcomes.

M&A & INTEGRATIONIntegrating one business while becoming part of another
Situation

Assumed responsibility for a second large operations organization while the broader platform was being acquired by a bank-regulated parent, effectively doubling my operating scope amid simultaneous integration and client-continuity demands.

Executive judgment

Established a single accountable operating model without forcing uniformity. Integrated leadership, governance, data, controls and technology planning where common structure created value; preserved core platforms where conversion risk outweighed the benefit.

Evidence
  • 100+ person global operations organization integrated under one operating model
  • ~2× operating scope absorbed
  • No disrupted client SLAs through integration
  • Legal Day One readiness amid concurrent acquisition
  • Controls elevated to bank-level standards
SCALE & OPERATING ARCHITECTUREReplacing operational limits with capacity for growth
Situation

Within a platform holding roughly 25 million tax lots and handling about one million transactions each day, reconciliation and exception management had outgrown spreadsheets and commercial tooling. Manual exception work was heavy, start-of-day processing took hours, and the existing approach could not support continued growth.

Executive judgment

Built the architecture around risk, normalizing fragmented data, automating known and low-risk exceptions, and reserving human judgment for material, unexplained or systemic issues.

Evidence
  • 120,000+ custom SMA accounts supported at scale
  • >99% reduction in manual exceptions
  • 6 hours removed from start-of-day processing
  • Capacity for ~20% projected annual growth built into the operating model
DATA & DECISION INFRASTRUCTURECreating one trusted foundation for enterprise decisions
Situation

Security master, pricing, corporate action and other market and reference data flowed across a large investment platform through multiple sources, systems and downstream processes. Fragmented ownership and inconsistent data produced conflicting answers, downstream errors and unnecessary manual work across the organization.

Executive judgment

Defined data quality as enterprise infrastructure, not a cleanup exercise. Established common ownership, governance, rules and workflows around a trusted source of data so decisions and downstream processes could rely on the same foundation.

Evidence
  • 36% reduction in data errors within 90 days
  • ~50% improvement in operating efficiency within 90 days
  • Firmwide governance established across market and reference data
INNOVATION & ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITYBuilding a governed path for operator-led innovation
Situation

Improvement demand was bottlenecked through Technology, while experienced operators closest to the work often had the knowledge to solve problems themselves but no safe mechanism to do it.

Executive judgment

Created the firm's first dedicated Continuous Improvement capability. Paired experienced operators with governed development environments, testing, version control and formal change controls, alongside centralized intake and prioritization for larger technology demand.

Evidence
  • Technology backlog materially reduced
  • Operating capacity returned to production work
  • Approach replicated by other departments
ORGANIZATION & LEADERSHIPTurning talent stability into operating resilience
Situation

Tasked with stabilizing and rebuilding a complex operations team where high turnover, short tenure and low employee confidence were creating material risks to continuity, institutional knowledge and organizational capacity.

Executive judgment

Reframed talent stability as an operating-risk issue and rebuilt the team culture around context, development, accountability and opportunity. Worked directly with employees to understand the drivers of attrition, expanded training, strengthened leadership routines, and rebuilt risk controls to create a more stable, capable organization.

Evidence
  • 40% reduction in turnover within one year
  • 42% increase in employee satisfaction survey scores within one year
  • Doubled average tenure across non-leadership roles
  • Leadership and specialist career paths established
TECHNOLOGY & OPERATING TRANSFORMATIONChanging the platform without breaking the business
Situation

A mission-critical accounting platform sat at the center of portfolio management, trading, performance, reporting, CRM, automation and client-specific workflows. Replacing it meant changing foundational infrastructure without disrupting the business built around it.

Executive judgment

Led the platform replacement as an enterprise operating transformation. Business requirements, data integrity, controls, dependencies, testing and cutover readiness drove the implementation rather than allowing the technology itself to dictate the operating model.

Evidence
  • ~60,000 accounts migrated
  • 20+ years of historical data preserved
  • Firmwide dependencies remediated across systems, workflows and reporting
  • Zero client interruption
Work with me

Three ways to engage. One standard of leadership.

My deepest operating experience is in asset and wealth management, including RIAs and investment platforms. I also work selectively with other complex businesses facing similar inflection points.

I serve as a senior thinking partner for consequential decisions involving operating model, structure, technology, integration, governance, and organizational change. Best when leadership needs independent judgment, challenge, and perspective, including through periods of significant change, without adding another operating executive to the organization.

I join the leadership team for a defined executive remit, with real decision authority and ongoing accountability for the outcomes within it. This may include operating leadership through growth, integration, technology or data change, organizational redesign, or another consequential period when the business needs experienced executive ownership but not a full-time hire.

I step into a critical executive role during a vacancy, transition, or period of change, with authority to stabilize the organization, move essential work forward, and prepare for a strong handoff to permanent leadership.

About Me
Holly Bragdon, close portrait

Seattle-based. Remote, with travel and on-site presence when the work benefits from having me in the room.

More than two decades building and leading through complexity, with a preference for the work that doesn’t resolve neatly.

My career has been built leading complex business and operating platforms in investment and wealth management, from boutique firms to responsibility for a platform supporting $350B in AUM. That experience includes Managing Director roles at Morgan Stanley and Parametric Portfolio Associates, where my work crossed functions: operating models, technology and data, governance, transformation, M&A and organizational leadership.

I pay attention to what connects, what is missing, and what happens next.

More about me

I have particularly deep experience in separately managed accounts (SMAs) and direct indexing, including the operating and data infrastructure required to run highly customized investment platforms at scale.

That depth is one part of the work, not the boundary of it. I help leadership teams understand what needs to change, make the decisions that shape the operating model, and lead the change through the organization.

I am direct, curious, and willing to say what needs to be said. I like understanding how things really work and building something stronger on the other side. The relationships I build along the way matter deeply to me. Outside of work, I am happiest somewhere in the Pacific Northwest with my husband and dog, preferably near the water or on a trail.

Let’s Talk

Complex situations become clearer once the right questions are on the table.

Whether you need another perspective or someone to help lead the change, let's talk.