Baird could make Charlotte a regional hub

As Baird grows in Charlotte, the Milwaukee-based wealth management and capital markets firm could make the city a Southeastern hub.

The Charlotte office now has 13 financial advisers, but hopes to grow to 25 over the next couple years, office manager Landrum Henderson told the Observer. That would make it the largest office in the Southeast, surpassing Atlanta.

Baird is also considering moving some research and back-office operations to the city to create the hub, he said.

The firm has had an investment banking team in the city since 2008, when its bankers came over from Wachovia. The capital markets and fixed income operations now have 22 bankers in Charlotte.

Baird's Charlotte wealth management office opened in 2010 and has since grown to about $1.2 billion in assets under management. More than half of its financial advisers, including two last month, have come from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.