Patrick Tuttle, co-chief executive of the diversified and acquisitive financial services player, Pepper Group, has left the company after 16 years.In a note, via the ASX and dated 3 April, Pepper said Tuttle "will be leaving the company, effective 31 March 2017" as a consequence of a Board decision to consolidate the CEO role. Tuttle's co-CEO, Michael Culhane, will now become Pepper's sole CEO.Seumas Dawes, Pepper Group chair (and largest shareholder in the firm) thanked Tuttle for his work, a tenure during which he was instrumental in both the Australian and international growth and the ASX listing of Pepper (in July 2015). The decision to eject Tuttle - who was appointed Pepper's CEO in 2007 - comes a month after Pepper Group reported a net profit for the year ended December 2016 of A$61.6 million, up from $3.4 million the previous year.Tuttle, who had joined Pepper as its CFO and treasurer from Macquarie Bank in 2001, said: "Whilst I am disappointed with this decision, I take enormous satisfaction in knowing that I leave the company in a strong financial position, well-placed to continue its commercial success in all of the markets in which it currently operates."He declined to comment further.This resetting of the management team marks a full-circle back to Pepper for Culhane, who founded the company in 2000. From 2001 to 2008 he was a member and chairman of the board as well as founding and running Oakwood Global Finance LLP, an operation that grew into a diversified specialty finance business.In 2006, Culhane organised the sale of Pepper and the wider Oakwood business to Merrill Lynch. From 2006 to 2008 Culhane was the group CEO of Oakwood which, in turn, owned Pepper and numerous specialty finance businesses in Europe.In 2010, Culhane teamed up with Tuttle to organise the purchase of Pepper back from Merrill Lynch, which had, in turn, been bought out by Bank of America. In this deal, they were aided by a group of high net worth investors, led by the current chairman Seumas Dawes.In January 2011 Culhane relocated from London to Sydney to run Pepper with Tuttle, as the company continued on its upward arc of expansion, acquiring post-financial crisis financial services businesses across the globe.In this co-CEO phase, Culhane took responsibility for acquisitions and the more transactional businesses within the group such as Pepper's commercial real estate business, while Tuttle ran Pepper's Australian businesses, comprising its residential mortgage lending, asset finance and specialist loan servicing activities. The internal mergers and acquisitions team reported to Culhane, and the country heads of Pepper's European and Asian lending and loan servicing businesses reported directly to Tuttle.Since 2016 Culhane has been based in Hong Kong, according to the company's 2016 annual report.