Northern Financial Corp. today announced the appointment of George Garner as executive vp, private client at Northern Securities Inc. Garner will be responsible for growing the firm’s national retail business.

Garner has been in the securities industry for 20 years, the past 11 years having been spent with ScotiaMcLeod Inc. He was national sales manager and head of the brokerage firm’s full service business from 1999 to 2004 where he set the strategic direction of the retail group, and was responsible for over 800 retail advisors.

In his most recent position at ScotiaMcLeod, Garner was managing director and head of the international brokerage team where he was responsible for delivering brokerage services to wealthy customers of the bank worldwide.

“Northern represents an exciting opportunity to build a retail business that addresses a significant gap in the Canadian marketplace. We want to provide at Northern a home for solid professional advisors looking for an entrepreneurial environment where their efforts will be appreciated. This entrepreneurial environment will enable retail advisors to service the fundamental investment needs of all clients,” said Garner in a release.

Northern advisors tend to have annual production and assets under administration in the mid-range of Canadian retail brokers, the company says.

“We are very pleased to welcome George Garner to Northern Securities to lead and grow our retail business across Canada,” said Vic Alboini, chairman and CEO of Northern Securities.

“The retail growth will complement our Institutional Capital Markets business by providing retail advisors with access to private placements and public offerings of small cap companies that are unique, distinctive, proprietary and also under-appreciated in the market. Our expanded retail team will provide important distribution and liquidity for our small cap corporate clients,” he added.