Clack joins Adaptive Financial Consulting as chief product officer

Trading technology provider Adaptive Financial Consulting has hired Dave Clack to be the firm’s chief product officer, a newly created strategic role. Clack will drive further innovation of Aeron, Adaptive’s cloud-native messaging infrastructure for capital markets and work to minimize the ROI timespan for financial firms deploying its front-office trading architectures into the cloud.

Clack will play a role in driving growth and expanding the product, developing Adaptive’s product roadmap, identifying nascent demand for new technology and leading development efforts. He will oversee the entire product lifecycle of Aeron as well as Adaptive’s accelerator technologies, which Adaptive uses to build bespoke trading technology solutions for capital markets clients.

Clack joined Adaptive in 2015 as a non-executive board advisor. Most recently, he guided the firm as it opened its first office in Asia and supported the launch of a 24/7 managed service to run cloud-native trading platforms.

His previous roles include leadership positions at data services company Quantum, and LMAX, where he was head of technology delivery. Most recently, Clack led CatDV, a media management business, steering its revenue growth until its acquisition.

SmartStream taps Jaffer to be CEO

SmartStream has appointed Akber Jaffer as its new CEO, replacing Haytham Kaddoura, who has helmed the company since May 2016.

Jaffer has held various positions at startups and scaled-up technology organizations. Most recently, he spent five years at Finastra, where he worked on company strategy, corporate development, and treasury and capital markets software. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at Colt Technology Services, where he was vice president of strategy and business development, general manager, and eventually chief strategy officer and chief of staff.

Asifma appoints Patel as new chair of the board

The Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Asifma) has tapped Harshika Patel to chair its board, taking over from David Ratliff, whose three-year term has ended.

Patel is currently CEO of JPMorgan Hong Kong and head of strategy for JPMorgan Asia Pacific. With Asifma recently growing to more than 170 member firms across the region’s capital markets, she is tasked with continuing growth and development of the association.

Additionally, Jiaxing Zhou (Joe), chief compliance officer and global head of legal and compliance department at CICC, has been appointed co-vice chair. Andrew Ng, group executive and head of treasury markets for DBS, serves as Asifma’s other co-vice chair.

The board also approved three new executive committee members: Stewart James, managing director and Asia-Pacific co-head of government affairs at Goldman Sachs; Charles Lam, Citi Hong Kong’s head of markets; and Tina Tsui, BNY Mellon’s managing director and associate general counsel, head of Asia-Pacific public policy and government affairs, and head of legal for Asia-Pacific markets, clearance and collateral management.

Northern Trust names head of asset servicing in Hong Kong

Northern Trust has appointed Aisling Keane head of asset servicing, Hong Kong.

In the newly created role, Keane will lead Northern Trust’s asset servicing business in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and be responsible for overseeing the overall strategic direction for the asset servicing business and providing solutions to clients.

Keane has 20 years of industry experience, most recently serving as head of alternative investment solutions for Asia-Pacific at State Street. Prior to that, she was Asia-Pacific head of hedge fund services at BNP Paribas Securities Services, and director at Credit Suisse. 

In her new role, Keane reports to Angelo Calvitto, head of Asia-Pacific.

DTCC installs Goldman’s Steele as president of clearing and securities services

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) has appointed Brian Steele managing director and president of clearing and securities services, effective October 2. Steele will join the DTCC management committee, management risk committee and the investment management committee. Steele will also become chair of the DTCC Institutional Trade Processing (ITP) board of managers.

Steele has nearly 20 years of experience in a range of senior-level roles at Goldman Sachs, including most recently as managing director of the Americas client coverage group and global head of client and market solutions.

Prior to that, he served as a senior leader in a number of operations-related roles, including global head of market structure solutions, global head of equities execution services and settlements, global head of digital transformation for the operations division, and global head of market solutions for the operations division.

Broadridge’s ICS business gets two new co-presidents

Broadridge Financial Solutions has appointed Michael Tae and Doug DeSchutter as co-presidents of its Investor Communication Solutions (ICS) business.

In their new roles, Tae and DeSchutter will be responsible for all aspects of the company’s ICS business segment, including the bank broker-dealer, corporate issuer, mutual fund and retirement, and customer communications solutions businesses. As part of the long-planned leadership transition, current president Bob Schifellite will move into a new advisory role, engaging with clients and advising Tae and DeSchutter as chairman of Broadridge ICS.

Tae became president of ICS’s mutual funds, retirement, issuer, and data and analytics businesses in January 2023. Since joining Broadridge in 2017, Tae has led Broadridge’s efforts to enhance innovation through a combination of acquisitions and internal investments, first as chief strategy and corporate development officer, and then later as chief transformation officer for ICS. He has also driven the company’s regulatory strategy, with a focus on developing solutions to enhance the effectiveness of fund and retail investor communications. As executive chair of Broadridge’s MultiCultural Associate Network, he has been a champion of the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Tae began his career at McKinsey & Co. before moving to Merrill Lynch investment banking as a vice president in the financial institutions group. He later served as director of investments for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) at the US Department of the Treasury.

DeSchutter took the helm of Broadridge’s bank broker-dealer business in January 2023, adding leadership of Broadridge’s proxy, prospectus, and related businesses to his prior role as president of Broadridge customer communications. He has been a member of the executive committee for 16 years, joining Broadridge as chief strategy and corporate development officer when it first became an independent company.

Prior to joining Broadridge, he held various leadership roles at ADP and was vice president of technology M&A at Lehman Brothers.

AccessFintech hires Raman as president and COO

AccessFintech, a provider of real-time data and insights across financial markets, has appointed Gayatri Raman president and COO, and a member of the AccessFintech board. Gayatri brings the experience of managing global capital markets companies and will be responsible for driving AccessFintech’ growth globally. She will manage sales, marketing, products, partnerships and human resources and will report to co-founder and CEO Roy Saadon.

Raman joins AccessFintech from Clearwater Analytics, where she served as president of Europe and Asia. In that role, she built and managed Clearwater’s business in the company’s primary growth markets. As a member of the global executive team, she helped drive a successful IPO and executed an M&A strategy acquiring businesses in the region.

Prior to that, she was CEO of AIM Software, where she transformed the company to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business that was acquired by SimCorp. Prior to AIM, Raman spent over a decade building and growing capital markets businesses, across Capgemini and Genpact Headstrong.

Provenir makes Elizondo CFO

Provenir, a provider of AI-powered risk decision-making software, has appointed Andres Elizondo as its new CFO. Elizondo’s 15 years of experience includes both finance and strategy, with a focus on driving and delivering long-term business value. He has created and led the finance functions of global technology companies, as well as private equity-backed firms.

Previously, Elizondo was group CFO at software development platform Builder.ai and served as CFO of the Emea region at Rackspace Technology, where he was part of the leadership team that took the company public. 

Currently based in London, Elizondo will work with Provenir’s global finance team in New Jersey, the UK, and India.