Nitrogen Appoints SaaS Veteran Zitting as CEO, Doubling Down on Plans to Help Wealth Management Firms Grow
Aaron Klein passes the CEO baton after 12 years leading the firm; will continue as board member and strategic advisor.
AUBURN, CALIFORNIA – November 14, 2023 — Nitrogen, the company that is revolutionizing how financial advisors and wealth management firms grow, today announced the appointment of Dan Zitting as Chief Executive Officer. Zitting is a seasoned executive, known for his former role as CEO of Galvanize and his extensive experience spanning growth, risk and compliance functions. The appointment completes Nitrogen’s next-generation leadership team and sets the stage for further platform expansion and continued scale. Aaron Klein will transition out of operational leadership before year end, continuing to serve on the Nitrogen board of directors, as a champion of Fearless Investing at the 2024 Fearless Investing Summit and as a strategic advisor to Nitrogen’s leadership team.
“It is an honor to join a team that has truly defined how the wealth management industry engages with clients on their risk tolerance and financial behavior,” said Dan Zitting, Chief Executive Officer at Nitrogen. “Over the course of my career, I have measured my own success by the value my teams have provided to customers. The opportunity to serve advisors who deliver professional advice to Americans preparing for significant milestones in their lives is incredibly special to me. Standing amidst the greatest generational wealth transfer in history, there has never been a more important moment for our Fearless Investing vision. I am excited to accelerate the expansion of our platform, adding new ways for advisors to differentiate their services, engage the next generation, drive up client satisfaction and to grow their own firms.”
Zitting began his career as a certified public accountant and is a three-time company founder. Among the companies he founded is Workpapers.com, which was subsequently acquired by Galvanize. Over the course of his career with Galvanize, he grew the company to more than 500 employees, 50 worldwide channel partners and $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). He ended his career with Galvanize as CEO after a $1 billion acquisition by Diligent. There, he went on to become Chief Product and Strategy Officer, integrating the technology, people and customer bases of four additional acquired companies.
“I am enormously grateful — to my teammates, our partners at Hg, our outstanding board and most importantly, the advisors and firms we love to serve — for my last 12 years as CEO,” said Aaron Klein, Co-Founder and former Chief Executive Officer at Nitrogen. “After a decade plus of pouring my heart and soul into this company at nearly every waking moment, it’s time for me to take some time, pour my energy into my family and help contribute to Nitrogen’s vision and strategy from a different role. It has been the honor of my career to lead this firm, and Dan is going to be an amazing new leader for this organization, driving Nitrogen’s next decade of success.”
In addition to being the firm’s largest individual shareholder, Klein will continue to serve on Nitrogen’s board of directors, and as a strategic advisor to the Nitrogen leadership team. Zitting joins Chief Product Officer Justin Boatman (January 2016), Chief Financial Officer Will Cureton (August 2022), Chief Revenue Officer Stephen Brandes (April 2023), Chief Technology Officer Josh Gray (July 2022), Chief Marketing Officer Craig Clark (May 2022) and Senior Vice President of Operations Micaela Barraza (April 2013).
“We’re so grateful to Aaron for the amazing culture of innovation he has built, and for his role in cultivating an iconic firm in the wealth tech space,” said Laurie Schultz, Board Chair at Nitrogen. “Great businesses set themselves up for success beyond their first CEO, and I’m confident that Dan is well equipped to build on the foundation we’ve established during our firm’s first decade.”
For more information about this transition, please visit www.nitrogenwealth.com/excitingnews.
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About Nitrogen
Nitrogen has been revolutionizing how financial advisors and wealth management firms grow since the launch of Riskalyze in 2011. Today, Nitrogen is the growth platform for wealth management firms, helping advisors turn leads into meetings, meetings into valued clients, and clients into referral champions. The company invented the Risk Number®, built on top of a Nobel Prize-winning academic framework, and is the champion of the Fearless Investing Movement — tens of thousands of financial advisors committed to our mission of empowering the world to invest fearlessly. To learn more, visit NitrogenWealth.com.