Craig Kouimanis
Financial planning outsourcing specialists, Vital Business Partners (VBP) has appointed Craig Kouimanis to the newly created position of Chief Growth Officer, as the group sharpens its focus on expanding existing relationships, winning new clients and enhancing its value proposition to advice businesses and licensees.
Kouimanis, who joins VBP from licensee services company Paragem, will report to VBP Chief Executive Officer, Mark Fisher.
Previously, Kouimanis has held senior positions at Securitor, Commonwealth Financial Planning and Colonial First State.
“Craig is a highly respected leader with decades of experience supporting advisers to run successful businesses,” Fisher said.
“He intimately understands the challenges and opportunities facing advice businesses and the services and support they need to achieve their goals and grow.”
“VBP exists to help businesses scale sustainably, improve performance and focus on what matters most, and Craig is the ideal person to help shape our growth strategy and drive initiatives across the IFA and licensee segments.”
In his role, Kouimanis will be responsible for building and maintaining client and stakeholder relationships, ensuring that clients’ needs are met, and strengthening VBP’s position as Australia’s leading specialist outsourcing partner to the advice profession.
He will also support initiatives that drive product and service innovation, including the expansion of VBP’s agentic AI and automation services.
Kouimanis said VBP’s value proposition, which centred on people and technology, aligned with his own beliefs on what small-to-medium enterprises needed to succeed in today’s complex, fast-paced operating and regulatory environment.
“In advice and professional services, people are critical to success, but technology is also extremely important, and they lie at the heart of what VBP does,” he said.
“I believe that systems run businesses and people run systems, and VBP has the right combination of people and tech to drive efficiencies, productivity and performance.”
“VBP strives to bring institutional-grade services and resources to advice SMEs in order to solve their problems and support them to achieve their growth ambitions, and I am excited to work with Mark and his team to execute the group’s mission and strategy.”
Kouimanis will join VBP on October 14, 2026.