The Global Financial Technology Elite Sets Itself Apart by Understanding

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The 2015 Tech 50

repeating in the No. 1 position, brought his company from nowhere to the top of the global exchange world in part because, he says, “technology enabled us to scale quickly.” It also can fail. ICE’s three-and-a-half-hour outage on July 8 was only the latest to affect a major mar- Racers ket platform — and demonstrate the importance of two other differentiating qualities: resiliency and recovery. Catherine Bessant (No. 2), global technology and operations executive at Bank of America Corp., frets that the technology world at large is “moving at to the the speed of the consumer, not the speed of the enterprise.” The answer? “The best and brightest talent.” Bessant believes that “in conjunction with advanced- state thinking, financial services is mag- netic for tech people.” But that means competing against Apple, Google and other name brands. Edge The Tech 50 ranking was compiled The global financial technology elite sets itself apart by understanding by Institutional Investor editors and the strategic and societal implications of high-tech advances and staff, with nominations and input from industry participants and experts. Four pushing innovation at Silicon Valley–like speed. primary sets of attributes were evalu- ated: achievements and contributions over the course of a career; scope and complexity of responsibilities; influence GROUNDED AS IT IS IN INFOR- applications and system performance as and leadership inside and outside the mation and money — and components of corporate strategy. These organization; and pure technological information about money leaders think big about the global or innovation. The top ten appear in the fol- — financial services is, was and always macro implications of technology-driven lowing pages, and full profiles for all 50 will be a technology business. “Good change — from cloud computing and can be viewed online at iim.ag/tech50. information received in a timely fash- machine learning to emerging sensations Of the 50 entries, 36 return from ion” defined sound banking, the late like the Apple Watch, cryptocurrencies last year. The returnees’ 2014 ranks Citibank chairman Walter Wriston said and the Internet of Things. They relate are shown, and the rest are designated more than 30 years ago. such developments to their organiza- “PNR” (previously not ranked). But money, banking and capital mar- tions’ and customers’ on-the-ground kets have come a long way from what challenges and opportunities; set budget, The Tech 50 was compiled under the they were in Wriston’s time, or even a investment and R&D priorities; and come direction of Senior Contributing Editor year ago, because technology is advanc- up with solutions, to use the technologi- Jeffrey Kutler. Individual profiles were ing so quickly and changing industry cal term of art. written by Kutler; Asia Bureau Chief and society as it goes. And they put a premium on speed Allen T. Cheng; Editorial Research That is the day-to-day reality for the and agility. “It’s all about speed to inno- Assistant Jess Delaney; Senior Writers Tech 50, the visionaries and innovators vate,” says Robert Alexander (No. 24), Frances Denmark, Julie Segal and Aaron on Institutional Investor’s annual ranking chief information officer of Capital One Timms; Associate Editor Kaitlin Ugolik; of financial technology leaders. What sets Financial Corp. International Editor Tom Buerkle; and these executives apart goes beyond their Intercontinental Exchange Editor Michael Peltz. • considerable understanding of software chairman and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, THE BEST OF THE REST: NOS. 11-50*

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11 David Craig President, Thomson Reuters Financial and Risk THE 2015 TECH 50: JOSEPH SQUERI 12 Daniel Coleman CEO KCG Holdings The Citadel chief information officer climbs 13 Michael Spencer CEO ICAP 14 Michael Bodson President and CEO Depository Trust & to No. 27 on this year’s Tech 50 ranking. Clearing Corp. 15 Charles Li CEO Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing 16 Chris Concannon President and CEO BATS Global Markets 17 Christopher CIO State Street Corp. Perretta 18 Antoine Shagoury COO London Stock Exchange Group 19 Kevin Rhein CIO Wells Fargo & Co. 20 Neil Katz Managing Director D.E. Shaw & Co. 27 21 Lee Olesky CEO Tradeweb Markets JOSEPH SQUERI 22 Richard McVey Chairman and CEO MarketAxess Holdings Chief Information Officer 23 Seth Merrin CEO Liquidnet Holdings CITADEL 24 Robert Alexander CIO Capital One Financial Corp. LAST YEAR: 33 25 Frank Bisignano Chairman and CEO First Data Corp. 26 John Marcante Head, Information Vanguard Group Advanced technology has been crucial to the standout performance Technology Division of Chicago-based Citadel since its founding in 1990 by CEO Kenneth 27 Joseph Squeri CIO Citadel CEO TMX Group Griffin. Today the $26 billion hedge fund firm’s technology is a 28 Lou Eccleston 29 Claude Honegger Co-CIO Credit Suisse business in itself, led by Joseph Squeri, chief information officer since 30 Chris Corrado CIO MSCI October 2013. His predecessor, Tom Miglis, retired after 13 years in 31 David Gledhill Head, Group DBS Bank the job, during which he powered up information technology to meet Technology and Operations not only Citadel’s exacting needs but also those of other firms that 32 John Bates Chief Marketing Officer Software AG became customers of its solutions businesses. A three-decade Wall 33 Michael Cooper CTO BT Radianz Street veteran with an MBA from Pace University’s Lubin School of 34 Gary Scholten CIO Principal Financial Business, Squeri was previously CIO of Barclays’ capital markets and Group asset management businesses. He has continued to pick up the pace 35 Sunil Hirani CEO trueEX Group 36 Hauke Stars Head, Information Deutsche Börse at Citadel. The firm’s analysts and investment professionals “have Technology, Market everything at their fingertips to operate at very high performance Data and Services levels,” the 51-year-old says. It takes a high-end IT shop to deliver the 37 Brian Conlon CEO First Derivatives CEO eVestment vast quantities of data and analytical tools that the asset management 38 Jim Minnick 39 Lars Seier Co-CEOs Saxo Bank and quantitative research functions require to produce results for Christensen & clients. The CIO supervised the build-out of Citadel Securities’ Kim Fournais CIO MaplesFS market-making platform; the firm now ranks among the top three 40 Tyler Kim 41 Jim McGuire CIO Charles Schwab Corp. interest rate swaps dealers and is mounting a challenge to banks 42 Steven O’Hanlon President and CEO Numerix in U.S. government bond trading. “We’re constantly fine-tuning to 43 Sebastián Ceria CEO Axioma ensure we adapt to the changing conditions of the marketplace,” says 44 Yasuki Okai President NRI Holdings America Squeri. That includes developing trade execution pipes with lower 45 Stephane Dubois CEO Xignite latency and faster turnaround times with better pricing. He oversees 46 Mazy Dar CEO OpenFin the trading technology offered to the sell side on a white-label basis, 47 Brian Sentance CEO Xenomorph Software and Citadel continues a sales and operational relationship with 48 Mas Nakachi CEO OpenGamma 49 John Lehner CEO BNY Mellon Technology Northern Trust Corp. four years after the asset servicer acquired Solutions Group Citadel’s Omnium hedge fund administration business. 50 Jock Percy CEO Perseus *Go to iim.ag/tech50 for full profiles.