- Willem van Rooy joins from Quilter plc to lead Openwork's Strategic Investments team, as Aidan Chavasse becomes CFO of Omnis Investments.
London, 24 August 2026 – The Openwork Partnership (“Openwork”), one of the UK's largest financial advice networks, today announces two senior leadership appointments across the Group, as it strengthens its acquisition, succession and investment capabilities to support the next phase of its growth strategy.
Willem van Rooy will join Openwork as Director of Mergers, Acquisitions & Succession, taking up the role at the start of 2027. He will lead Openwork's Strategic Investments team, supporting the Partnership's development through strategic acquisitions and helping advisers and firms across the network navigate succession opportunities. Supported by Openwork's partnership with Bain Capital, the team has already made considerable progress in 2026, including the acquisition of West Midlands Mortgage Centre, a valued part of the Openwork network for more than 20 years.
Willem joins from Quilter plc, where, as Mergers & Acquisitions Director, he led the development of the group’s acquisition and integration framework and executed multiple transactions with a combined value of more than £2 billion. He brings over two decades of financial services experience to the role.
As part of the changes, Aidan Chavasse, Openwork’s current Strategic Investments Director, will take on the new role of Chief Financial Officer at Omnis Investments, which manages £11.4 billion in assets, from January 2027. Aidan has held several senior finance and strategy roles across Openwork, including as Interim CFO and Head of Finance & Strategy. His appointment comes at an exciting time for Omnis as it continues to evolve its proposition and executes on an ambitious growth plan.
Rob Barker, CEO at The Openwork Partnership, said: “Supporting advisers through strategic investments remains central to Openwork's ambition of becoming the UK's leading financial advice network. Willem's record of building and executing acquisition strategies on a scale makes him the ideal person to lead that work. I look forward to welcoming him to Openwork.
Aidan has already demonstrated the rigour, commercial acumen and leadership needed to deliver some of the Partnership’s most significant strategic initiatives, and he will bring those same strengths to Omnis as it enters its next phase of growth and development.”
Willem van Rooy, incoming Director of Mergers, Acquisitions & Succession at The Openwork Partnership, said: “There is a significant opportunity to use M&A to drive inorganic growth and succession across the Partnership. I am excited to join at a point where there is real ambition to build a disciplined, scalable acquisition capability and to work with the team to turn that ambition into meaningful growth.”
Aidan Chavasse, incoming CFO of Omnis Investments, said: “I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved in the Strategic Investments team. Our initial work has delivered strong successes and set the Partnership up to excel in this space to function as a key lever in our growth journey. Equally, I am incredibly excited to be stepping into this new role at Omnis as it too takes on a pivotal stage in its evolution and growth.”
About The Openwork Partnership
We are one of the UK’s largest and longest-established financial advice networks, supporting nearly 5,000 advisers across 800+ firms across Openwork, 2plan, and Owl Financial.
Covering the full spectrum of advice, from protection, mortgages, wealth planning, and investments, we help advisers grow their businesses and deliver outstanding advice to clients. Our network is built on partnership and collaboration.
From support with recruitment, through to growth, succession and renewal, we enable our network firms to build and grow successful, sustainable practices and focus on delivering the best possible advice to their clients.
This includes access to our proprietary investment proposition, Omnis Investments, the Openwork Business School, a dedicated platform to support recruitment, training and professional development across the network, and our 800+ strong central team which offers expert support in areas such as compliance, technology, marketing, and operations.
The Openwork Group is majority-owned by the Openwork Partnership LLP with Bain Capital and its employees holding minority stakes.
Media contact
Hamza Farooq
Senior External Communications Manager
The Openwork Partnership