April Rudin
Global Wealth Marketing Strategist, Found & CEO of The Rudin Group
Founder and President of The Rudin Group, April J. Rudin is widely acknowledged as a top marketing strategist for the financial-services and wealth-management sectors. Distinguished by her ability to forecast and leverage critical trends, and by her expertise in digital and traditional media, she leads a firm that designs bespoke marketing campaigns for some of the world's leading wealth-management firms, fintechs, and family offices; campaigns that strengthen brand value and drive client acquisition. The Rudin Group was founded in 2008. April is recognized by Onalytica as the #1 "Influencer" in wealth management, and regularly-featured source of expert commentary to international news and business outlets, trade publications, and broadcast media. She is an annual contributor to the Capgemini World Wealth Report; produces the CFA Institute’s Annual Outlook for U.S. Wealth Management; and speaks about wealth, next-gen, and fintech at conferences in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Africa. April is also a contributor to the Wealthtech book. April has created an extensive repertoire of thought leadership that has appeared in Huffington Post, American Banker, CFA Enterprising Investor, Family Wealth Report, Fundfire, Wealthmanagement.Com, and heads the editorial board for NexChange, a global fintech start-up based in Hong Kong and serves on the Board of MiradorLLC, a wealthtech firm providing concierge reporting for U/HNW. A member of the Private Asset Management advisory board, she also serves as a judge for the FT Wealthtech awards, Family Wealth Report’s Annual Wealth Management Industry Awards, and Canada’s Wealth Professional Awards. April is the mother of two sons who are quick to point out that they considered her an “influencer” well before Onalytica did.
How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?
I was the original “millennial girl” hired by Kelly Services – the global temporary help firm – to solve the problem of typewriters becoming extinct and replaced by personal computers. I learned first hand how technology could reformat a company and how marketing / re-branding could change the position of the firm in the marketplace. We also created huge partnerships with IBM, Microsoft and many others. Later, I combined this knowledge with my experience in wealth management and family office to work to change the cliched branding, messaging and imagery of wealth management and financial services firms.
What topic areas are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about helping my clients find their voice and value props to communicate exactly what they want about their skills and firm values. I like being “disruptive” and approaching things from a new perspective. Wealth management firms, banks and other financial services marketing can be boring, staid and undifferentiated, I love to change all of that for brands.
Which influencers influence you within those key topics?
There are many people who influence me both online and offline – and people from my past, present and I like to seek out a variety of people in a variety of industries. Some online influencers include Jim Marous, Spiros Magaris, Danielle Guzman, Tamara McCleary, Bill Sullivan, and many others.
Outside of your key topics who else influences you?
How would you describe your offline influence?
Over the past 10 years, I have spoken at many high-level financial services events globally including in South Africa, Asia, Europe, and US. I speak at events usually 8 times a year. I have been a contributor to HuffPost for 10 years, and to all of the major trade publications in wealth management and financial services globally such as American Banker, FT-PWM, Informa and many others. I am a judge for wealth management and wealth tech awards for 4 different events and consult with hundreds of brands on the go-to-market, brand, messaging and visibility. I work with IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, Capgemini, Temenos, Fiserv, and many other global financial services brands.
What are your passions outside of work?
If a brand wanted to work with you, what offline / online activities would you be most interested in?
I am most interested in collaborating with brands in creating high-quality content in any form including podcasts, white papers, speaking opps and video interviews.
What brands have you worked with?
I have worked with many brands on an influencer basis and also on an agency basis to produce pinpoint messaging, compelling content and distribute it in a variety of ways both online and offline. After 10 years, I am proud to say the list is long and includes some of the largest and most prestigious financial services firms and technology firms who have financial services offerings.
Which non-paid activities would you be keen to take part in if the opportunity raised your profile or delivered value to your audience?
I would be interested in providing a quote for a blog or news article, sharing / creating a social post, participating in a podcast, webinar or online chat and creating video content.
What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?
Send me a message via my website, or connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn.