BGC Boosts Data Sales, Product Management

BGC Market Data, the data arm of interdealer broker BGC Partners, has beefed up its sales and product management functions in preparation for a new commercial model being introduced for the group in 2013 by executive managing director and global head of the data group Mark Benfield.

In November, BGC hired Andrew Twigg as regional manager of sales and business development for the market data business, covering the UK and Europe, reporting to Benfield and responsible for new global vendor strategies and engagements, and for major account coordination. Twigg was most recently sales director at Dow Jones Newswires, responsible for sales and business development activities for the vendor's low-latency news products in the UK, Europe and Asia, prior to which he spent 15 years in various sales and account management roles at Reuters and Reuters Australia.

Brad Jeffery joined the firm in December as regional manager of product management and data development for the UK and Europe, reporting jointly to global head of data and product management Pei Wang and chief information officer of the market data group Dave Harris, both of whom also joined the broker earlier this year in New York (IMD, Aug. 17). Jeffery was previously a technical consultant at broker-dealer Newedge, responsible for managing front-office trading, pricing and data systems for its UK operations.

In a similar role covering Asia, John Sim joined BGC in September as regional manager for product management and data development for the Asia-Pacific region, based in Singapore, following more than 17 years at Icap, where he managed regional IT operations for the interdealer broker in Singapore and Southeast Asia. In his new role, Sim will focus on expanding BGC's data inventory from its brokerage operations in the region, reporting to Wang

Benfield says the new hires -- in addition to the appointment of Harris and Wang earlier this year -- follow a restructuring of the data group since his own move from Icap to BCG in 2011 (IMD, July 25, 2011), and will support a new business model and strategy to be rolled out in 2013.