Abby Salameh, chief growth officer at RFG Advisory, the Birmingham, Ala.-headquartered hybrid RIA platform with $7.3 billion in assets, is leaving the firm at the end of the year. She said it was a personal decision to depart, citing the amount of travel involved, going back and forth between Birmingham and New Jersey, her home base. 

“If you’re an independent advisor, to continue to build your own brand and amplify your growth, it’s a great fit for those advisors. It just wasn’t a good fit for me,” she said. “I was traveling all the time.”

RFG hired Salameh in March 2024 to oversee advisor recruitment, marketing and organic growth initiatives for the firm’s partner practices. She also led a team of growth officers after the firm combined its business development and marketing teams. In that time, RFG has doubled its profitability, she said. 

Salameh said she’s in the process of searching for her next opportunity. 

“I’m going to look to find something that matches my own skillset and ambitions and experience and maybe isn’t headquartered somewhere that is really hard to get to for me.”

“Abby Salameh has made the personal decision to step away from her role at RFG Advisory,” said Shannon Spotswood, CEO of RFG. “While we’ll miss her contributions and leadership, we’re so excited for her next chapter. Abby leaves as a friend and a part of the RFG family—we’ll continue cheering her on every step of the way.”

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Before joining RFG, Salameh was the chief marketing officer at CAIS, the alternatives platform. Prior to that, she spent about two years as CMO for Hightower and six years in the same role at Private Advisor Group, a hybrid RIA and super office of supervisory jurisdiction of LPL. Prior to that, she was senior vice president and CMO of Fusion Advisor Network. 

Spotswood said RFG does not have plans to fill Salameh’s role and that the firm’s leadership will assume those responsibilities in the interim. 

RFG has been beefing up its leadership team in recent months. In October, Ed Swenson, who left Osaic this summer after leading the firm’s RIA solutions division for about two years, joined RFG as president. Spotswood held that role until July 2024, when she succeeded founder and CEO Bobby White, who moved into an executive chairman role. 

Last month, the firm added Doug Nelson as chief financial officer, replacing Kenneth Kim, who joined RFG in 2024 from FNZ. Nelson is a former principal at Long Ridge Equity Partners, the private equity firm that took a majority stake in RFG in 2023. 

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