People Moves: Calastone, Securitize, Esma, State Street and more

Calastone makes three strategic hires including new CFO

Calastone, a global funds network, has announced three strategic hires to support the next stage of its growth and mission to digitalize the investment funds market. Calastone has appointed Ahsan Raza as chief financial officer, Varun Atre as head of product, and Paul Elflain as head of Distributed Market Infrastructure (DMI) sales.

Raza brings over 15 years of experience in working with institutional clients in the financial technology, market infrastructure, and asset management sectors. Raza was previously a managing director and co-head of the technology investment banking coverage team for Barclays in EMEA. In his new role as CFO, he is responsible for managing all financial and strategic activities of the business.

Atre will oversee the continued innovation of Calastone’s product offering. Atre was previously an associate partner in McKinsey & Company’s London office.

Elflain joins the company in a newly created role as head of DMI sales. Calastone launched its blockchain-enabled DMI marketplace in 2019. Elfain brings leadership experience from his past positions at firms including Linedata, FIS Global, and DTCC Omgeo.

Securitize hires industry veterans to key roles

Securitize, a platform for issuing and trading digital asset securities, has made Brett Redfearn, former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s division of trading and markets, a senior strategic advisor to chief executive officer Carlos Domingo. He will also serve as chairman of the company’s advisory board.

Redfearn also previously served in a variety of capital markets leadership roles for JP Morgan and, most recently, Coinbase.

Securitize also announced that Wilfred Daye has been named head of Securitize Capital. Daye will lead the firm’s investment and asset management offerings under the banner of this wholly-owned subsidiary.

Daye was most recently chief executive officer of Enigma Securities, prior to which he was CEO and head of financial markets at OKCoin Securities. He was previously president and a portfolio manager at Noble Capital, and a trader and a quant in structured credit trading at UBS, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, and DB Zwirn.

Esma appoints Ross as next chairperson

The European Securities and Markets Authority, the EU’s securities markets regulator, has named Verena Ross to be the organization’s next chair. The appointment was confirmed by the Council of the European Union at its meeting in Brussels.

Ross replaces former chair Steven Maijoor and is appointed for a five-year term, renewable once. She was previously executive director at Esma from 2011 to 2021, having previously held regulatory and supervisory roles in London.

State Street appoints new heads in Asia Pacific

State Street has appointed Tim Helyar as head of Australia and Kevin Hardy as head of Singapore and Southeast Asia, as part of its Asia Pacific growth plan.

The two newly created roles will report to Mostapha Tahiri, APAC chief executive officer. Based in Sydney and Singapore, Helyar and Hardy will oversee State Street’s business in Australia and Southeast Asia respectively, including driving the enterprise-wide growth strategy, stewarding client engagement, developing talent, and maintaining strong regulatory relationships.

Helyar was most recently head of fund services product development for Asia Pacific at JP Morgan.

Hardy joins State Street from Additiv Asia where he was a general manager responsible for all activities in the region including sales, relationship management, and product for the Swiss-based technology provider. Prior to that, he held positions at BlackRock, Northern Trust Global Investments, and State Street Global Advisors. He was Singapore country head and APAC head of ETF and index investments at BlackRock.

CalPERS promotes corporate governance head to managing investment director of global equity

CalPERS, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the largest public pension fund in the United States, has named Simiso Nzima its managing investment director of global equity.

As the managing investment director of global equity, Nzima will manage the $250 billion global public equity asset class’ investment strategies, programs, and policies. He will ensure global equity is in alignment with CalPERS total fund while implementing high quality, efficient, and risk-aware investment strategies.

Nzima has been a member of the CalPERS investment team for more than 16 years. He most recently served as the investment director and head of corporate governance, where he oversaw all aspects of the corporate governance program, including proxy voting, shareowner campaigns, and corporate engagements.

Prior to joining CalPERS, Nzima held equity research and portfolio management roles at First Mutual Asset Management Company, Sagit Stockbrokers, and Alliance-MBCA Capital Management.

SBI Digital Markets announces new executive positions

SBI Digital Markets, the Singaporean subsidiary of SBI Digital Assets, has named Teo Chee Keong as head of professional technology services, Michael Chan as chief compliance officer, and Danny Surtani as chief financial officer.

Chee Keong joins SBI from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, where he was a solutions architect. Prior to that he was application development team lead at Cyberdyne Tech Exchange.

Chan joins SBI from Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore, where he worked in compliance. His prior roles include compliance and control at Norges Bank and Norges Bank Investment Management, and Asia head of compliance at Pareto.

Surtani hails from Deustche Bank, where he was APAC chief financial officer. Surtani spent more than 20 years at Deutsche Bank APAC in roles based in Tokyo and Singapore.