People Moves: Digital Asset, Coalition Greenwich, NZX, Symphony, and more

Former CFTC chairman joins Digital Asset board of directors

Digital Asset, a software and services provider of products based on distributed ledger technology for banks and other financial institutions has announced that J. Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has joined the company’s board of directors. As a member of the board, Giancarlo will provide counsel to Digital Asset’s leadership on strategic matters, namely asset tokenization, distributed ledger technology (DLT) advancement, and the regulatory and monetary developments impacting this space.

Giancarlo served as the 13th chairman of the CFTC from 2014 to 2019 under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Under his leadership, the CFTC published primers on virtual currencies and smart contracts, oversaw the launch of the first bitcoin futures contracts, and created LabCFTC as the agency’s stakeholder in the digital evolution of derivatives-trading markets. As chairman of the CFTC, he also served as a member of the US Financial Stability Oversight Committee, the president’s working group on financial markets, and the executive board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions.

Giancarlo currently serves as senior counsel to the international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and is a member of several boards, including Nomura Holdings, Common Securitization Solutions, and the American Financial Exchange, among others. He is also co-founder of the Digital Dollar Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the exploration of a US Central Bank Digital Currency.

Blater joins market structure & technology team at Coalition Greenwich

Coalition Greenwich, a global provider of data, analytics, and insights to the financial services industry, has hired Audrey Blater as a senior analyst on its market structure and technology team. In her new role, she will cover risk and capital markets regulation.

Blater joins Coalition Greenwich from Aite-Novarica Group, where she served as research director of the firm’s capital markets team. Prior to that, she led a global research team at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. She has extensive experience in enterprise risk solutions and practices, having served as an applied researcher at MSCI. She also spent several years on the buy side as a trader and analyst at AQR Capital Management.

NZX appoints Scott to technology committee

New Zealand’s Exchange (NZX) has appointed Anna Scott to its technology committee of the NZX Board. Scott is the chief operating officer and a director of Hobson Wealth Partners.

She has more than 20 years’ market experience, having held roles in program and business management in London, Kuala Lumpur, and Auckland. During her eight years in London, Scott was global business manager for JP Morgan’s currency trading division. She held the position of future director with NZX in 2019, under the Institute of Directors’ initiative designed to help identify the next generation of directors and grow the pool of governance talent in New Zealand.

Boyle joins Symphony as chief marketing officer

Symphony Communication Services, a markets infrastructure and technology platform, has appointed Alexandra Boyle chief marketing officer. Boyle will be responsible for leading global brand awareness, building community engagement, and enhancing client experience across digital channels. She will be focused on creating value for the company’s customers by amplifying Symphony’s technology and partnerships.

Prior to joining Symphony, Boyle was the head of the strategic client group in Europe for OpenFin.

Baton Systems appoints industry leader David Ornstein as first COO

Baton Systems, a fintech company specializing post-trade processing using distributed ledger technology (DLT), has appointed David Ornstein as the company’s first chief operating officer. As Baton’s COO, Ornstein will be focused on enabling the firm to scale as the number of clients continues to expand.

Ornstein was previously chief operating officer of global markets at Barclays Investment Bank. Prior to joining Barclays, Ornstein held roles at Deutsche Bank, where he was COO of US Credit Markets, and at Bankers Trust. Most recently, he has been working in an advisory capacity for several growth companies, providing counsel to CEOs and founders actively scaling their businesses.

Ornstein will be based in New York and will work closely with Baton’s founder and CEO, Arjun Jayaram.

Saxo Markets UK grows senior management team with new COO

Saxo Bank, a fintech specialist focused on multi-asset trading and investment, has appointed financial services industry veteran, Peter Morris, the new chief operating officer and board member of its subsidiary, Saxo Markets UK Limited.

Morris has more than 40 years’ experience across financial institutions and established financial technology companies, including Cognizant, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Smartstream Systems, BGC/Cantor Fitzgerald, Commerzbank, Nomura, and Lehman Brothers.

He will be based in London and report to Charles White-Thomson, CEO of Saxo Markets UK. His appointment follows the recent announcement that industry figures Nicholas Wilcock and Michael Ridley have joined Saxo Markets UK’s board as non-executive directors.

Wright to lead new R.J. O’Brien initiatives on fixed income and multi-asset electronic trading

R.J. O’Brien & Associates (RJO), an independent futures brokerage and clearing firm in the United States, has promoted Amber Wright to executive director, global head of fixed-income rates and e-trading sales, with responsibilities across RJO’s operating affiliates. Based in London, Wright is leading two key global initiatives, a significant expansion of the firm’s institutional fixed-income product breadth and a new algorithmic trading capability across multiple asset classes.

Reporting to RJO president and chief sales officer Daniel Staniford, Wright is now responsible for the development of the firm’s global institutional rates business and its e-trading offerings across all products. She will be partnering regularly with brokers throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), as well as the US and Asia, to further expand RJO’s product reach across the fixed-income markets and electronic trading solutions.

Wright has served as RJO’s senior director of global sales since early 2021, after joining the firm as director of global sales in July 2019.

She joined RJO from Capula Investment Management, a London-based hedge fund specializing in fixed income, which she joined in 2017 to establish a new systematic trading team, playing a leading role in the development and execution of a model-driven trading and algorithmic execution capability. She started her career at Barclays as a futures and options broker, developing a specialty in US treasury basis and relative value strategies.

RQD names Bridgeford chief compliance officer

RQD Clearing, a correspondent clearing provider, has expanded its executive leadership team with the addition of Lisa Bridgeford as chief compliance officer. In this role, Bridgeford will use her extensive industry experience directing compliance and operational processes to spearhead the company’s compliance activities. She will utilize her expertise in clearing, prime brokerage, compliance technology, and surveillance protocols to manage all aspects of RQD’s compliance program. Bridgeford is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and will report directly to CEO Michael Sanocki.

Bridgeford comes to RQD with more than 20 years of experience in the securities industry, most recently as chief compliance officer for Axos Clearing, where she was responsible for directing the firm’s compliance operations. Prior to Axos, she was a compliance officer at Securities America.

Garley joins Transcend as senior product specialist

Transcend, a provider of liquidity, funding, and collateral technology solutions, has named Tom Garley senior product specialist.

Garley was most recently a product manager at Chicago Mercanitle Exchange for integration services and post-trade solutions for its new Dealer-to-Customer (D2C) e-trading platforms. Garley is an advocate for greater automation throughout e-trading, post-trade, and operations infrastructures. After various operations management positions, Garley pivoted to electronic trading when he joined Tradeweb’s management team to launch the industry’s first multi-dealer fixed-income platform. After Tradeweb, Garley helped develop and launch numerous D2C trading platforms and a vast portfolio of post-trade solutions across firms such as Citi, State Street, Bloomberg, and BGC Partners.

Eventus names Bolke chief revenue officer

Eventus Systems, a global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions, has hired Jeff Bolke as chief revenue officer. Based in Austin and reporting to Eventus CEO Travis Schwab, Bolke will drive the firm’s global expansion strategy and oversee the sales, marketing, business development, and account management teams. 

Bolke joined Eventus from Planview, a Texas-based firm offering portfolio and work management solutions, where he was executive vice president of sales since 2017. In his role, he scaled the sales organization and helped drive global expansion, leading the worldwide sales, account management and solution consulting areas of the business. The company was successfully sold to TPG and TA Partners in November 2020.

Bolke began his career at IBM in account marketing and held a variety of key roles at high-growth software firms, including at TIBCO Software, a global leader in real-time data integration.

Oliver to serve as director of sales for middle-office services at Siepe

Siepe, a provider of technology, data and analytics, has named Michael Oliver as its new director of sales for middle-office services. His role will play an integral part in overseeing Siepe’s expansion into middle-office capabilities. Oliver will be responsible for driving business development to this new sector of Siepe’s product offering, building relationships with investment managers, and driving new business across the leveraged loan community. Based out of Chicago, he will report directly to Siepe’s vice president of sales and marketing, Ryan Browning.

Oliver joins Siepe from US Bank, a large consumer and private banking institution, where he was most recently senior vice president of business development. Over nearly two decades at US Bank, he managed business development for the bank’s corporate trust, focusing on broadly syndicated loans, collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), middle-market CLOs, credit facilities, business development companies, and loan agency and commercial real estate transactions.