People Moves: Refinitiv, Qontigo, GAM, OSTC, Outset Global

Refinitiv Exec Joins Qontigo

Financial intelligence provider Qontigo, part of Deutsche Borse Group, has hired Stephan Flagel as global head of indices and benchmarks. He’ll start work in early December, and is responsible for overseeing the company’s index business, as well as expanding the footprints of newly acquired businesses, Axioma and STOXX.

He joins Qontigo from Refinitiv where he also served as global head of indices and benchmarks. Prior to that, he served in the same capacity at Thomson Reuters. He also served as head of indices at Markit (now IHS Markit) and as director of research at Barclays Capital Research division.

Flägel will assume the role from Steffen Hermanns, who will retire in 2020. Flagel will report to Holger Wohlenberg, chief business officer of Qontigo.

Refinitiv Promotes Barrow To Head Up Benchmarks and Index Business

Building off the Qontigo news, Refinitiv has promoted Shirley Barrow to be global head of benchmarks and indexes. As a member of the Investment and Advisory (I&A) Proposition Leadership Team, she will be responsible for managing Refinitiv’s Benchmarks & Index business, including the WM/ Reuters business for foreign exchange benchmarks.

Barrow joined Refinitiv in April 2016. Prior to this, she was managing director at State Street, where she was responsible for the development and growth of the WM/ Reuters business. She brings 20 years of experience in financial services, having held several leadership positions at Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank and State Street.

Based in London, Barrow will report to Pradeep Menon, I&A managing director.

OSTC Appoints AI Expert to Board of Directors

OSTC, a global derivatives trading and education business, has appointed Rose Luckin, a professor at the University College London, as an independent non-executive board member. She is leading the team of UCL data scientists that are helping OSTC apply AI and other smart technologies into the human capital areas of its business, including recruitment, mentoring and training of traders.

Luckin currently is professor of Learner Centered Design at the UCL Knowledge Lab in London. Her research involves the design and evaluation of educational technology using theories from the learning sciences and techniques from AI. She’s also director of Educate, a London hub for educational technology startups, researchers and educators to work together on the development of evidence-informed educational technology.

She replaces Donna Whitehead, who is stepping down from the board following her appointment as deputy vice-chancellor of London Metropolitan University.

Outset Global Hires Rapavy as CFO, COO and CCO

Outset Global, a New York-based firm providing execution services and outsourced trading to asset managers, has hired Bill Rapavy as chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO) and chief compliance officer (CCO). He is responsible for overseeing financial, operational, and compliance activities at the firm.

Prior to joining Outset Global, he served as CFO/COO/CCO at Outpoint Capital Management, an equity hedge fund manager, for more than 10 years. Prior to Outpoint, Rapavy held a similar role at ElitePerformance Fund, a multi-strategy managed accounts platform. Earlier, Bill held sales, trading, and treasury management roles at Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Nomura, and Twenty-First Securities.

He reports to Raymond McCabe and Adam Bandeen, company co-founders.

Stream Data Centers Appoints VP of Network and Cloud

Stream Data Centers, provider of data center solutions, has hired Chad Rodriguez as vice president of network and cloud. With 17 years of experience in telecommunications, he’s tasked with diversifying the company’s connectivity options to meet increased customer demand for bandwidth and local access.

Rodriguez joins from Consolidated Communications, where he held roles in business development, carrier services and sales engineering. Prior to that, he was a customer service engineer at Cyan Inc.

He’ll carry out his new position based in Texas.

GAM Appoints Rafferty COO

Swiss asset manager GAM, which manages more than $139 billion in assets, has named Steve Rafferty chief operating officer (COO). He is responsible for overseeing GAM’s day-to-day global business and ensuring that it has the connectivity, coordination and operating processes required to meet its strategic goals.

Rafferty was formerly at BlackRock for 16 years, most recently as global COO for the fixed-income division, where he oversaw the operating integrity of the $2 trillion fixed income business. An accountant and CFA, Rafferty brings two decades of experience in asset management.

Based in London, he reports to Peter Sanderson, group CEO.