Howard Edelstein, the former Radianz CEO injected into NYFIX by private equity firm Warburg Pincus to rejuvenate the electronic trading firm, has recruited a raft of former colleagues from Radianz, Omgeo and Thomson to help him. Warburg Pincus, where Edelstein was entrepreneur-in-residence, recently invested $75 million in NYFIX.
Joining NYFIX in new senior positions are Brennan Carley, David Merrill, Robert Moitoso and Chris Walsh.They join a NYFIX management made up of CEO Edelstein, Chief Technology Officer Don Henderson and Transaction Services Division Heads Brian Carr, Tony Portelli and Paolo Aloe.
“This is a key part of our plan to aggressively expand the scale of NYFIX in 2007, by investing in core operations and evaluating strategic opportunities,” says Edelstein. “Each of these individuals brings an impressive background applying innovative thinking to business processes within the financial services industry. They will be a great fit culturally here at NYFIX, which has a rich history of innovation in financial services.”
Edelstein notes that NYFIX invented touch pad trading, introduced the first commercial FIX engine, facilitated the first FIX-based trading community, and launched the first real-time continuous Dark Pool, among other industry firsts.
Brennan Carley joins NYFIX as Chief Strategy Officer and Global Head of Product Operations, a new senior executive position intended to more tightly unify product strategy and strategic vision across the Company’s business lines. Carley was until recently Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at BT Radianz, after co-founding the company, then known as Radianz, upon its spin-out from Reuters in 1999. Previously, Carley held senior executive positions in product development, product strategy and technology at Reuters and at Instinet. He began his career at IBM in their Wall Street Solutions Center.
Also joining NYFIX in a new senior executive capacity is David Merrill, a longtime veteran of the financial technology industry. As Global Head of Client Operations, Merrill will work with the NYFIX Division Heads and with NYFIX clients to align the company’s global sales and account management teams around client needs, and to leverage the intellectual capital available at NYFIX across all its businesses. Merrill joins from Moody’s KMV where he was Managing Director, Americas. Prior to Moody’s, Merrill was Managing Director of Global Operations for Omgeo.
Robert Moitoso, recently Head of AutEx, also joins NYFIX as the Head of the Company’s FIX Division. A longtime Thomson Financial executive, Moitoso built the industry-leading AutEx BlockDATA business virtually from scratch. He also successfully expanded the AutEx business into Europe and Asia. At NYFIX, Mr. Moitoso will be focused on further enhancing the range of value-added services and solutions provided by NYFIX to its clients, which make up the industry’s broadest and deepest FIX-based trading community.
Joining NYFIX as new Head of the Company’s OMS Division is Chris Walsh, most recently CEO of Radius Partners, which he founded, grew and subsequently saw acquired by FundTech. Walsh has also been a senior executive at Thomson Financial, where he was instrumental in building the Thomson ESG business. At NYFIX, Walsh will be looking at new ways to work closely with NYFIX clients to meet their needs in the important market for sell-side order management systems. Former Division Head Bill Fallon will continue as part of the OMS team, assisting with client retention and new business development.
“One of our main goals for 2007 is to put our past problems behind us, re-capture the pioneering spirit that built this company and refocus it on growth,” explains Edelstein. “Our newly-expanded senior management team will work hard to leverage the wealth of expertise around the trading process that we have throughout the organization in order to achieve that objective.”