People Moves: Finastra, Luminex, Itarle, West Highland & More

Finastra Hires Fiondella For Data Chief

Finastra, a London-based fintech formed through the merger of D+H and Misys, has hired Lisa Fiondella as chief data officer (CDO) to lead its comprehensive data strategy, including how data is collected and utilized through the FusionFabric.cloud platform and other cloud-based solutions. She will be responsible for developing a data product roadmap and manage the process of bringing new data products to market.

She most recently served as vice president of analytic products for Experian, where she was responsible for developing analytic products with vast data assets and advanced analytics, including machine learning and AI.

Sutton Returns to West Highland

Ted Sutton has rejoined West Highland Support Services as VP of operations and service delivery. He is based in New York, with responsibility for the day-to-day running of the business, thus freeing up CEO Steven Roe to spend more time on face-to-face meetings with current and potential clients, and on developing new solutions.

Sutton was previously director of professional services at software vendor CoEnterprise. Prior to that, he spent almost nine years at Refinitiv and Thomson Reuters, as VP and head of customer implementations and solutions for the Americas, and head of delivery solution services for New York. Before that, he served a prior one-and-a-half-year stint at West Highland as VP of business development. He’s also held roles at Tervela, Tibco, Accenture, Sumitomo and EDS.

At West Highland, he reports to Roe.

Luminex Hires Three For Tech and Sales

Luminex Trading & Analytics, a trading venue owned by a consortium of investment managers, has made three appointments to its technology and sales teams. Joshua Reed joins as a sales and relationship Manager, Joshua Opper as director of infrastructure, and Robin Burr as a software engineer.

Reed was most recently a sales trader at Guggenheim Securities, trading equities for mutual funds, asset managers and hedge funds in Boston, Connecticut and Canada. Prior to Guggenheim, Reed spent much of his 20-year career at Wellington Management in equity capital markets and sector trading.

Opper was most recently a managing partner at Utility Datacenter. He worked with daily operations teams, managing internal operations, assets and vendor selection as he designed and implemented a wide variety of enterprise IT solutions. Prior to Utility Datacenter, he was principal consultant at Par4 Technologies.

Burr comes to Luminex from Placester, where she was a lead engineer working on account creation, synchronization, integration issues and custom ETL coding. Prior to that role, she worked at Hitachi Consulting as the lead software engineer.

Merritt Joins CPQi as Senior Sales Executive, North America

CPQi, a Canada-based consultant for financial technology, is bulking up its North American sales presence with the hire of Adam Merritt as senior sales executive in North America. Merritt is responsible for building the firm’s brand equity across the continent and growing sales for CPQi’s managed services.

Merritt joins from a private equity firm, where he was involved in capital raising and due diligence, and prior to that, he was client partner at Wipro, a provider of IT and R&D services. He began his career at Credit Suisse in equity sales and State Street Global Markets in structured products and fixed income.

Merritt is based in New York, reporting to Jason Beck, global head of the US and Mexico division.

Shakti Names Gruen COO

Shakti Software, a parallel data platform, has appointed Abby Gruen as chief operating officer (COO). In her new role, Gruen will oversee operations across the organization and help drive the company’s growth agenda.

Gruen joins from Kx Systems, the data analytics division of First Derivatives, where she was chief marketing officer (CMO). Prior to that, she covered business, policy and civic issues as a reporter at publications such as SNL Financial (now S&P CapitalIQ), The Star-Ledger and The New York Times. She began her career on Wall Street as an analyst for Financial Security Assurance.

Gruen is based in New York.

Former Clear Capital Group CEO Joins Itarle

Itarle, a provider of best execution algorithmic trading to banks and brokers, has hired James Thorpe as regional manager of its Chicago office to further boost Itarle’s presence across North America. The hire is part of an ongoing push into North America by the Swiss fintech.

Thorpe joins Itarle from Clear Capital Group, a proprietary trading group in Chicago, where he served as CEO. Prior to that, he was CEO of Mercury Derivatives, part of The Hertshten Group, where he managed the company’s day-to-day expansion across China before managing the global trading group.