{"id":21035,"date":"2023-11-22T20:40:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T20:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thinkadvisor.com\/2023\/11\/22\/a-ceo-walks-away-whats-next-for-eric-clarke-orion\/"},"modified":"2023-11-22T20:40:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T20:40:19","slug":"a-ceo-walks-away-whats-next-for-eric-clarke-orion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2023\/11\/22\/a-ceo-walks-away-whats-next-for-eric-clarke-orion\/","title":{"rendered":"A CEO Walks Away: What’s Next for Eric Clarke, Orion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eric Clarke, who founded Orion Advisor Solutions 24 years ago, retired as CEO earlier this month. But that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s stopped looking ahead at how Orion will help advisors use artificial intelligence in useful, ever-more sophisticated ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

AI will be \u201cincorporated into the client experience \u2026 [and] double or triple the number of households each advisor is able to serve concurrently,\u201d Clarke forecasts in an interview with ThinkAdvisor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke launched Orion at age 26. Unable to find certain technology off the shelf while working at his family RIA, he put together a plan to create a company for advisors that, in 1999, would become Orion Tech.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before retiring at 50, he led Orion to provide thousands of independent advisory firms with advanced integrated technology. It now administers $3.8 trillion in client assets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke guided seven major acquisitions from 2018-2022, including those of Brinker Capital and Redtail Technology.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflecting on his career, his proudest achievement, he says, is \u201cenabling thousands of advisors to leave brokerage firms and go out as true fiduciaries with the technology they need to serve a significant number of households at scale.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke is enthusiastic about the growing trend of behavioral finance among advisors because \u201cit makes clients feel understood\u201d\u2026 and secure \u201cthat they have a trusted resource.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Three years ago, Orion hired psychologist Daniel Crosby<\/a> as the firm\u2019s chief behavioral officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke, speaking from Omaha, Nebraska, where Orion is headquartered, talks about why he retired and about his current volunteer work helping student entrepreneurs form their own companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more exciting than starting a new business,\u201d he says, adding that he has no plans to do so right now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are highlights of our conversation:<\/span><\/p>\n

THINKADVISOR: Why have you retired at the young age of 50?<\/b><\/p>\n

ERIC CLARKE<\/b>: Lots of reasons. One is [although] my entrepreneurial nature and background led our company to the success that we enjoyed, I realized some of those skills and strengths may not be the best to run a business with 1,400 team members.<\/span><\/p>\n

So in April, I approached my board and said, \u201cI think it would be a good time to bring in a leader that can help take our business to the next level.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

I felt I had taken our business about as far as I could with the entrepreneurial frameworks that I relate to.<\/span><\/p>\n

What resulted from your announcement?<\/b><\/p>\n

We wanted to bring in a more seasoned veteran that had a little deeper experience than I had in certain areas. And I think our board accomplished that by bringing in Natalie<\/a> [Wolfsen as CEO].<\/span><\/p>\n

I have a lot of confidence in her and Charles Goldman as chairman. They\u2019re a great team, and as an Orion board member, I\u2019m excited to support them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given your entrepreneurial bent, are you planning to start a new company?<\/b><\/p>\n

I love starting new businesses. But I don\u2019t have anything that\u2019s readily present where I can tell you that\u2019s something I could commit to.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting a new business and having that type of experience is always something I\u2019m interested in, But right now, I want to be supportive of [Orion]. We\u2019ll see what the future holds.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s been your biggest success as Orion founder and CEO?<\/b><\/p>\n

The thing I\u2019m most proud of is that we\u2019ve enabled thousands of advisors to leave brokerage firms and go out as true fiduciaries with the technology they need to serve a significant number of households at scale.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where do you see the firm a few decades from now?<\/b><\/p>\n

I believe that Orion\u2019s best days are still to come. The fiduciary model will accelerate as we go forward. I\u2019m really excited about Orion\u2019s future.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the years to come, Orion will be able to help advisors with technology built around artificial intelligence, taking the very unhuman-like responses we\u2019re seeing coming out of AI now and incorporating [upgraded capabilities] into the client experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

That will drive advisors\u2019 ability to serve more and more households. It will help advisors accomplish tasks so that it will double or triple the number of households each advisor is able to serve concurrently.<\/span><\/p>\n

What trends has Orion recently capitalized on?<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Clarke, who founded Orion Advisor Solutions 24 years ago, retired as CEO earlier this month. But that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s stopped looking ahead at how Orion will help advisors use artificial intelligence in...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/a-ceo-walks-away-whats-next-for-eric-clarke-orion.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}