ValidPath Group Appoints Chief Technology Officer to Scale AI Infrastructure for Financial Advice

Rimbal, the parent group of ValidPath, the network for independent financial advisers, has today announced the appointment of Brian Wagner as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). 

Wagner brings over two decades of experience in software engineering, cloud computing, enterprise security, and AI. He has a strong track record of building and scaling development teams and enterprise-grade platforms, including AI-driven systems processing millions of financial transactions. Wagner previously served as EMEA Head of Compliance for Financial Services at Amazon Web Services, where he shaped cloud regulatory frameworks across financial services globally. He is also the author of Redefining Information Security (2025), a practitioner’s guide to building security-driven organisations. Most recently, he served as CTO at a UK-based FinTech. 

As part of his new role, Wagner will lead the delivery of Rimbal’s technology roadmap, and the scaling of the technological infrastructure that powers ValidPath and supports hundreds of IFA firms across the UK. Wagner will focus on scalability, enterprise robustness, AI-grade data sovereignty and building the technological foundations for enabling in-house and third-party adviser, client and agentic systems and applications.  

Wagner joins an established technology team within Rimbal that includes Brad Powar who, in his new role as AI Technologist, will focus exclusively on AI and agentic innovation for Rimbal, ValidPath and the broader financial advice industry. 

Angus MacNee, CEO of ValidPath Group, said: “We are rebuilding the advice and compliance process from the ground up to be AI-native and not just a digitised version of what was possible with pen and paper. Brian’s experience building and scaling enterprise grade infrastructure will accelerate our roadmap to enable every adviser and client experience to be enhanced by AI. 

As an independent network, we want to support advisers to best serve their clients. Looking forward, this means not just being platform and provider agnostic, but systems and process agnostic, leveraging all available in-house and third-party tools. Long term, I believe almost every firm should ‘run on Rimbal’, and I’m delighted that Brian has joined the team to help accelerate our vision.“ 

Brian Wagner, Chief Technology Officer at ValidPath Group, said: “AI is transforming how the world works, and the rate of innovation and disruption is unprecedented. We are closer than most people realise to a world where every client, regardless of wealth, has access to genuinely personalised financial advice. Yet the barrier is not AI; it is the fragmented infrastructure and data that sit beneath every advice business today. I am extremely excited about what we are building at Rimbal to solve that layer for ValidPath and the wider IFA community, because it will enable more advisers to be more efficient, and also more capable of supporting more clients to achieve better outcomes.  Bridging the gap between optimal, personalised advice and every client (or potential client) represents a tremendous opportunity to deliver meaningful, positive impact.”