People Moves: Symphony, BMLL, HKEX, CloudMargin, Tora, Baton, and more

Symphony names Brad Levy CEO, replacing founder David Gurlé

Brad Levy will take over as CEO of financial information workflow platform Symphony on June 1, replacing founder David Gurlé, who will remain a board director. Levy joined the company last year as president and chief commercial officer after eight years at IHS Markit, including as partner, CEO of MarkitServ, and global head of information. He also served as a member of Markit’s board between 2003 and 2011 while at Goldman Sachs, where he spent almost 18 years in various roles, including managing director and global head of principal strategic investments, and VP of FICC e-commerce, having started at the firm as an analyst covering public finance.

Chief financial officer Benjamin Chrnelich will assume the role of president from Levy, in addition to his existing CFO duties.

Symphony was formed in 2014 when its backers acquired Perzo, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based collaboration platform founded by Gurlé. Before founding Perzo, Gurlé was VP of corporate strategy at telecoms provider Avaya, general manager of Skype for Business until its sale to Microsoft in 2011, and spent almost seven years at Thomson Reuters as global head of collaboration services and head of its Sales and Trading business in Asia.

Responding to growth, BMLL hires industry vets Johnstone, Ellis

Historical data and analytics provider BMLL Technologies has hired Masami Johnstone as senior client advisor and Simon Ellis as head of strategic partnerships, in response to growing demand for the vendor’s services.

Johnstone was previously MD and head of information services at FX settlement services provider CLS Group, prior to which she was head of buy-side sales and head of institutional quant research at Euronext. Before that, she spent almost a decade at ITG, including as head of consulting for analytics in EMEA, and more than 13 years at Barings, including as a senior risk manager for quantitative research.

She is also the founder of BlissFintech, which advises financial technology companies on business development, product development, and client engagement strategies.

Ellis has spent the past 17 years as a management consultant, serving in contract roles at client firms, including TickSmith, where he was EMEA director, and TIM Group, where he was global sales director. Before becoming a management consultant, Ellis was strategic business development manager at research portal Multex, was global business development manager at financial extranet Radianz, international sales director for financial services in EMEA at network provider TNS, and deputy sales manager at Thomson Financial.

HKEX names ex-Swift exec to head post-trade change tech initiatives

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) has appointed Lisa O’Connor managing director and head of post-trade change, responsible for clearing and settlement initiatives, including leveraging new technology to expand and enhance the exchange’s post-trade services.

O’Connor was previously global head of capital markets strategy at post-trade messaging utility Swift, where she held a number of senior positions, including head of standards for Asia Pacific. Before joining Swift in 2017, O’Connor was managing director and head of securities services at Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong, prior to which she served another five-year stint at Swift, as initiative director for RMB Internationalization and director of securities markets for Asia Pacific. Before that, she was a buy-side market specialist at Thomson Reuters, business development manager at Mergermarket, and an investment banking market specialist at Thomson Financial.

She reports to Glenda So, head of post trade at HKEX.

Former Lombard Risk director joins CloudMargin to drive product

Cloud-based collateral and margin management solution provider CloudMargin has hired Helen Nicol as senior vice president and head of product to leverage her experience in collateral management to grow and enhance the vendor’s services.

Nicol spent the past 14 years as global product director at regulatory reporting and collateral management software vendor Lombard Risk (now owned by Vermeg), prior to which she held banking roles at Credit Suisse—where she led new business and derivative legal agreements, including managing the bank’s OTC repo and currency collateral legal agreements—and UBS.

Based in London, she reports to CloudMargin CEO Stuart Connolly.

Tora snares sales vet Moran to grow NY sales

San Francisco-based trading technology provider Tora has hired Mark Moran as sales director, based in New York, to grow sales of the vendor’s order and execution management system and portfolio management system among buy-side and sell-side firms. Moran was most recently director of enterprise sales at wealth management data aggregator Private Client Resources, prior to which he was a senior sales executive at FIS, and vice president of new business development at investment management software provider Archer. Before that, he held account executive and relationship management roles at Advent Software and CheckFree, prior to which he was a trader at John A. Levin & Co., and at Avatar Associates.

At Tora, Moran reports to managing director Chris Jenkins.

3Forge appoints UK sales director to expand beyond US

New York-based analytics platform provider 3Forge has hired Dimitri Kyriakou as UK sales director, responsible for expanding the vendor’s reach in the UK and Europe, and for its buy-side initiatives.

Kyriakou joins 3Forge from FactSet, where he spent more than five years, in roles including senior datafeed sales specialist, analytics consultant, and investment management consultant.

At 3Forge, Kyriakou reports to New York-based head of sales Peter Sibirzeff.

Former CFTC chair advances to Baton

Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of US regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has joined post-trade solutions provider Baton Systems as a senior advisor. Baton officials say Giancarlo’s “advocacy for emerging technology” will support Baton’s innovation.

Giancarlo is senior counsel to law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher and co-founder of the Digital Dollar Project, which promotes development of a US central bank digital currency, and is chairman of Common Securitization Solutions, a joint venture between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among other board and director roles. Before becoming CFTC chair in 2014, Giancarlo spent 13 years as EVP of financial services at interdealer broker GFI Group, and was EVP and US counsel of Fenics Software prior to its acquisition by GFI. Previously he held partner and associate roles at various law firms, advising on M&A, trademark and technology licensing, regulatory compliance, and risk management, among other areas.

LPA taps consulting, bank tech vet Rothley to drive consulting arm

Frankfurt-based financial technology developer and consultancy LPA Group has hired Daniela Rothley as a consulting partner to build out the company’s consulting business across Europe, including the UK and Scandinavia.

Rothley was most recently an associate partner for financial services at Infosys Consulting, prior to which she was a business unit manager for capital markets at Sopra Steria Consulting, and set up an IT consulting business at SQS Group Management Consulting.

Before that, she spent five years at LBBW Landesbank Baden-Wuttemberg as a project and program manager and a senior business consultant, prior to which she spent four years as a business analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

Rothley reports to LPA CEO Peter Schurau.

Quant tech provider SIGTech adds sales directors in NY, London

SIGTech, a London-based provider of quantitative trading technology for investment managers, has hired two new sales directors to support growth plans for the US and Asian markets this year.

In New York, the vendor has hired Josh Diamant as director of North America sales—the vendor’s first hire in the US. Diamant previously spent almost seven years in sales roles at Numerix, prior to which he was a market risk associate at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, and previously served as AVP of market risk engineering at Barclays, and a market risk analyst at MF Global.

In London, SIGTech has hired Alex Caillol as sales director to grow its UK, Europe and Middle East business. Caillol was most recently sales director for institutional and investment management in EMEA at SS&C Technologies, and has previously held senior sales roles at Fitch Solutions, Moody’s Analytics, Bloomberg and FactSet Research Systems.

Both report to SIGTech chief sales officer John McCann.

Miax nabs research vet Nybo to lead comms

Andy Nybo has joined Miami International Holdings, operator of the Miax family of options exchanges as well as the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and the Bermuda Stock Exchange, as senior vice president and chief communications officer He will use his deep knowledge of market structure in a newly created role responsible for liaising with media, analysts, and the industry.

Nybo was most recently managing director of TP Icap-owned Burton-Taylor International Consulting, prior to which he spent a decade at Tabb Group as partner and global head of research and consulting. Before that, he was head of marketing and communications at bond trading platform MarketAxxess, a senior analyst at research firm Tower Group, and served as VP of research at the Bond Market Association.

At Miax, he reports to Thomas Gallagher, chairman and CEO of Miami International Holdings.