Guggenheim Partners has brought on a Wall Street veteran to help it expand its investment management business.

Donald Cacciapaglia is joining the firm as president and chief operating officer of its investment management business, which has more than $80 billion in assets under management.

“Guggenheim’s investment management business has seen increases in total assets managed each year since the firm’s inception and Don’s extensive experience will support plans for continued growth,” said Mark Walter, Guggenheim’s chief executive officer.

Cacciapaglia joins from Guggenheim-affiliated firm Channel Capital Group Inc., where he served as CEO. He will continue to be the chairman of Channel Capital.

News of Cacciapaglia’s promotion comes on the heels of Channel Capital recently spinning off its broker-dealer team to Direct Access Partners in a strategic business initiative.

When he started with Channel Capital in 2002, Cacciapaglia said, it was essentially a start-up. But the change was exciting for someone who had put in two decades serving in leadership roles at top Wall Street firms.

“Guggenheim has such significant growth potential, it is the same kind of excitement, plus I will be able to work more directly with Mark and Scott [Minerd, Guggenheim’s CIO] for whom I have tremendous respect,” Cacciapaglia said.

From 1996 to 2002, Cacciapaglia was chief operating officer of the investment banking group at PaineWebber, launching its private equity group and a team responsible for covering leveraged buyout firms in 1998.

Prior to PaineWebber, he was COO of the short and intermediate trading group at Credit Suisse First Boston after serving in various roles at Merrill Lynch. Cacciapaglia was also a senior analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1973 to 1977.

Guggenheim is a financial services firm with more than $100 billion in assets under supervision. Its businesses include investment management, advisory, insurance, investment banking and capital markets services.