This week’s People Moves Monday played host to a series of farewells as several industry veterans hung up their hats following 40+ years in the markets.
First was Mark Freeman, head of electronic sales and sales trading at Kepler Cheuvreux, who retired from the industry after 42 years in trading. Freeman started his career at Sheppards & Chase in 1980 and, following a brief three-year stint in Bahrain, joined Instinet in October 1990 – back when the electronic trading pioneer had just 12 London employees.
From there he moved to ITG, and then (via a couple of FinTechs including Portware and NYFIX) to Credit Agricole Cheuvreux, which became Kepler Cheuvreux following its acquisition by Kepler Capital in 2013.
Also to confirm his retirement after four decades of experience in the markets was Invesco’s senior dealer and head of EMEA equity trading at Invesco, David Miller. He joined Invesco Perpetual in 2001 and has held a leading role as one of the firm’s three regional trading heads, with responsibility for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Prior to joining Invesco, he spent five years as a market controller at London-based stock exchange Tradepoint, one of the first electronic order driven exchanges. His first role in the industry was as a market maker at Smith New Court, which he joined in 1982, spending 13 years on the desk before departing upon its acquisition by Merrill Lynch.
A few hellos
While some blockbuster names said goodbye to the industry, others took up new positions. The Kuwait Clearing Company (KCC) named experienced securities services executive Alex Krunic as its new CEO. In the role he will head up the group’s CCP, CSD and trustee services.
Krunic’s career has seen him in a range of post-trade roles at Societe Generale, JP Morgan and Citi, among others. Additionally, he served on the Supervisory Board of AS PrivatBank, Latvia and is a former board member of the Supervisory Board of the National Settlement Division (Russian Central Securities Depository) and advisor to the Euroclear UK and International CEO.
And finally, RBC sought to bolster its global credit and equity sales trading businesses with three senior new hires. Nicole Baker was appointed to head up RBC’s North American equity sales trading team for Europe. She joined from independent investment bank Raymond James where she served in a similar role. Prior to joining Raymond James in 2014, Baker held several roles across CIBC World Markets and Haywood Securities.
Also appointed into RBC’s European credit franchise are Alex Marinelli, who joins as a director and EUR corporates trader, and Bradley Hill who has been appointed as a director and corporate hybrids trader. Marinelli joins from Barclays, having also previously served at JP Morgan where he traded corporate and financials credit. Hill joins after previously serving at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for 12 years within the credit flow trading team.