Coppin joins Patersons to drive broker's national growth plans

Perth-based stockbroker Patersons Securities Ltd has brought in former Western Australian broker Andrew Coppin to drive its national growth plans.
Mr Coppin, who most recently headed Bell Potter Securities Ltd's national business development until taking a recent sabbatical, is expected to take an equity stake in the business as part of the deal.

Patersons staff were told of new appointment today.
Patersons executive chairman Michael Manford said the move to appoint Mr Coppin, as director of private clients Australia, would allow the firm to consolidate on the significant footholds it already had on the east coast, namely Sydney, Melbourne and, to a lesser extent, Canberra.
The firm is also looking at expanding its regional presence in other states, following success in that strategy in WA.
Mr Manford said that to take advantage of the opportunities in the market, Patersons needed to give the right level of support to advisers.
"The structure in the past has been managers at state level," he said.
"But those managers have been running about doing business with clients.
"To grow nationally it will take more than that."
"We have looked to employ some significant private client business writers in Sydney and Melbourne over the current period of time.
"To do that we need to provide advisors with leading support services to direct them to the business."
Mr Manford said the firm, in which he and fellow director Aaron Constantine dominate the ownership with almost 40 per cent of equity between them, had been considering such a appointment for some time and had been looking for the right person to drive it.
"We do believe Andrew is the right person," he said.
Mr Manford said he saw Patersons as a leading full-service, private client stock broking firm with a significant presence in the mid-cap stock range.
Mr Coppin, a 40under40 winner in 2003, ran the Perth office of Bell Potter until he was moved to Sydney to head the company's NSW business. His final role at Bell Potter was the national business development role until he quit about six months ago.
Mr Coppin said the opportunity to take equity was a key motivation for him, after spending the past five years growing a business without any ownership.
He said he believed Patersons was in a position to become "another Bells", which he estimated was worth about $250 million when he departed.