People Moves: FINRA, Tassat, Eventus Systems, Willis Re and Big XYT

Finra Appoints Executive Vice President

Greg Ruppert will join the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) as executive vice president, national cause and financial crimes detection programs. He will report directly to executive vice president of member supervision, Bari Havlik.

Ruppert fills a new role created after Cameron Funkhouser, head of Finra’s office of fraud detection and market intelligence, retired at the end of last year.

Previously, he was a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), where he worked on complex financial investigations, terrorism and cyber threats. Most recently, Ruppert worked at Charles Schwab for six years as senior vice president and chief of the financial crimes risk management group.

Ruppert is a member of the California bar and professor of practice for the University of the Pacific where he gained a Juris Doctorate and BA.

Tassat Hires CEO

Tassat, a provider of financial technologies and products for digital payments and digital exchange, has announced Krishna Prasad as the firm’s new CEO. Prasad will replace former CEO Thomas Kim, who recently left the firm. Prasad’s new role will encompass operational leadership, commercialization, product management and investments to progress the firm’s digital payments and digital exchange businesses.

Prasad has worked for both financial institutions and fintech startups. Most recently, he was the founder of Kavery Advisors, a consulting firm in India focusing on private equity and venture investments. He was also head of alternative investment products at TIAA and BBVA, co-head of institutional services at Morgan Stanley and head of operations at Deutsche Asset Management. Prasad was also partner and COO at S3 Partners, a startup that provided financing and data analytics to investment firms.

Eventus Systems Makes First Key London Hire

Eventus Systems, a global trade surveillance and market risk software platform provider, has announced that Roger Chandler will join the firm as senior sales engineer as they expand the business to London. Chandler will be responsible for servicing existing clients and for growing the business and forging new relationships with prospective clients. He will report to Scott Schroeder, global head of sales.

Last month, the firm announced a $10.5 million funding round to grow the business globally. This included enhancing technology and taking on new hires such as Eric Einfalt, who joined as chief strategy officer, and David Mitchell, who was hired as a regional sales executive.

Before the move, Chandler was most recently technology sales manager for Bloomberg LP in London, where he was responsible for enterprise technical sales in the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at Fidessa PLC, initially as a service delivery manager and ultimately as global account director.

Willis Re Appoints Senior Vice President

Willis Re, the reinsurance business of Willis Towers Watson, has announced the hiring of a new senior vice president and practice leader, Dan Melanson. The role will see him responsible for strategizing the growth of the Life, Accident and Health (LAH) business within the firm. He will assume the role immediately, reporting to Rob Fast, executive vice president and LAH segment leader.

With over 27 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Melanson held a number of senior roles at reinsurance firms. Prior to his new role at Willis Re, he worked at Guy Carpenter where he was a managing director in the healthcare practice, working closely with providers, health systems, captives and health plans to develop reinsurance programs.

Executive Team Hire At Big XYT

Richard Hills will be joining the independent provider of market data analytics big xyt as their new head of client engagement. The hire comes as the firm prepares to accelerate their 2020 strategic business plans. Hills will be based in London and will work alongside Mark Montgomery, head of strategy and business development.

The new role will see Hills help to drive client innovation using a partnership engagement model as he will be responsible for promoting client awareness of the full suite of products that big xyt has to offer.

Hills joins the firm from Société Générale where he built the equities electronic trading business. During his time at Société Générale he worked on electronic, program trading and high touch execution, going on to become global co-head of cash equities execution.