People Moves: BSO, Saxo Markets, MSCI, LPA, and more

BSO appoints new chief financial officer and global marketing director

BSO, a global infrastructure and connectivity provider, has announced the appointments of Laurence Saunier as chief financial officer and Virginia Petrou as global marketing director.

Saunier is based in Paris and will be reporting directly to Michael Ourabah, chief executive officer. She joins BSO from QuantHouse, where she was CFO from 2011 to 2021 and in charge of finance, legal and human resources. Prior to QuantHouse, she was the CFO for GL Trade for nine years and started her career as an auditor at Ernst & Young.

Petrou is based in London and will report to Fraser Bell, chief commercial officer. She joins BSO from Temenos, where she was the global head of marketing demand center.

Saxo Markets UK bolsters board with commercial, regulatory experts 

Saxo Bank, a Danish bank specializing in multi-asset trading and investment, has appointed Nicholas Wilcock and Michael Ridley as independent non-executive directors to the board of its subsidiary, Saxo Markets UK.

Wilcock is a board-level advisor to banks and brokers on a wide range of operational and regulatory issues. Prior to his consulting career, he spent over 25 years at Credit Suisse, where he held several roles, including EMEA deputy chief operating officer.

Ridley is an industry veteran with over 40 years’ experience in investment banking, with focus on sovereigns and financial institutions. He spent 17 years at JP Morgan Securities, where he served on the board of JP Morgan Europe for seven years while holding positions such as vice chairman of investment banking, global head of fixed income syndicate, and others.

MSCI announces flurry of senior leadership changes

Risk management specialist and index provider MSCI has announced various senior leadership changes in its solutions and client coverage teams.

Remy Briand, MSCI’s current head of ESG and climate, has been appointed chief product officer. In this newly created role, Briand will be responsible for leading and driving MSCI’s integrated product suite to meet the needs of clients looking for holistic solutions to tackle investment challenges, capitalize on opportunities and navigate industry change. He will continue to report to Baer Pettit, president and chief operating officer at MSCI.

In addition to his new role as chief product officer, Briand will also become head of index. Diana Tidd, current head of index and chief responsibility officer, will become fully dedicated to the role of chief responsibility officer. As head of index, Briand will be responsible for leading the vision and business strategy for MSCI’s index product line.

Tidd was appointed as the firm’s first chief responsibility officer in 2018. In her fully dedicated role, she will continue to guide ESG policies for the firm and focus on the comprehensive integration of ESG practices across MSCI’s strategy process, governance structure, and business operations.

Eric Moen will assume the role of head of ESG and climate. Moen has been with MSCI for more than two decades, and he has focused on leading the expansion of client solutions across MSCI’s ESG business. In this role, he will oversee the day-to-day operations of the ESG and climate team and drive collaboration and innovation across MSCI’s product lines.

Alvise Munari, MSCI’s global head of client coverage, will become chief client officer and continue to report to COO Pettit.

Jeremy Baskin, head of Americas client coverage, will take on the new global role of head of buy-side client segments, including asset managers, asset owners, hedge funds, and wealth.

Christine Berg, head of Americas index client coverage, will assume the role of head of Americas client coverage and will oversee MSCI’s sales, consulting, and client service teams in the region. Before her current position, Berg led the exchange-traded products client coverage team.

Michelle Shanley, head of strategic Americas account management, will take on the global role of head of strategic and key accounts. In this role, Shanley will focus on program expansion, C-suite engagement, and governance.

LPA expands European asset management business with new hire

LPA Group, a capital markets technology and advisory firm, has hired Alexander Ehmann, who will responsible for LPA’s asset management business across the UK, Ireland, and the Nordics. In his role, Ehmann oversees sales and business development, especially of the newly rebranded Capmatix Regulations, previously known as Acarda, LPA’s platform for cross-border fund regulatory reporting solutions.

He joins LPA from UK fund data provider FE fundinfo, where he was responsible for sales and business development for the entire product range in Germany, Austria, and Luxembourg. He started his career as a fund analyst at Morningstar, where he was one of the first analysts responsible for the Morningstar Qualitative Fund Rating.

Tier1 expands in North America

Tier1 Financial Solutions, a provider of client relationship management (CRM) solutions, anti-money laundering compliance, and fraud prevention solutions, has appointed Megan Howe as managing director of North American sales. Howe will be responsible for driving compliance software and buy-side CRM sales in North America, delivering a range of client lifecycle management solutions.

Before joining Tier1, Howe was vice president of sales at Oversight Systems, where she managed sales and client relationships for its fraud prevention and reporting solutions. Prior to this, she was a senior sales leader at Paycom.

USAM nabs industry vets O’Krepkie, Kelly to grow sales agency

New York-based outsourced sales agency USAM Group has hired industry veterans George O’Krepkie and Mike Kelly as strategic sales advisors, to support ongoing client growth.

O’Krepkie was most recently chairman and chief executive officer of Ax Trading, an alternative trading system focused on using blockchain technology to support private stock trading. Before that, he was chairman and CEO of Bonds.com, prior to which he spent almost a decade at MarketAxess as head of dealer relationship management. He also held sales roles at TradingEdge, Lehman Brothers, and Kidder Peabody.

Kelly was previously senior director and head of new business for fixed income at CME Group, which he joined via the exchange’s acquisition of interdealer broker Nex Group, where he had held the same role and also served as a senior account manager since 2000. Before that, he spent nine years as a municipal bond broker and systems manager at R.W. Ellwood & Co.

Both report to USAM founder and CEO Feargal O’Sullivan.

Officials say the new hires—which bring the company’s total sales team to 12 staff—validate USAM’s belief that there are plenty of good companies that have innovative technologies but don’t have the resources to invest in a full team of experienced sales professionals to grow their sales pipeline.

Baker McKenzie strengthens financial services practice with virtual assets specialist

Joy Lam, a lawyer concentrated on virtual assets and investment funds, has joined Baker McKenzie’s financial services practice in Hong Kong, where she will advise clients on virtual asset funds, tokenized offerings, and the development of infrastructure that support the virtual assets ecosystem.

Lam is a founding committee member of the Asia Security Token Alliance, active in thought leadership and the publication of whitepapers related to tokenization, and is a regular speaker at conferences, including those organized by OSL, Hong Kong’s first regulated crypto exchange and Asia’s largest digital asset trading platform. She joins Baker McKenzie from Sidley Austin, where she had been a partner of the firm.