People Moves: BestEx Research, Macrobond, Gresham, Baton, and more

BestEx Research appoints managing directors for client services

Algorithmic execution provider BestEx Research has appointed Dave Conner and John King as managing directors of client services. Conner and King will report to CEO Hitesh Mittal.

Conner has more than 25 years of experience in institutional electronic trading and has previously held numerous leadership roles, including head of electronic sales at PaineWebber, head of electronic sales for the Americas at Lehman Brothers, head of electronic sales for the Americas at JP Morgan, and director of platform sales at Citi. He will work out of BestEx’s New York and Stamford, Connecticut offices.  

King spent 12 years as a founding employee and director of sales at Liquidnet. He helped launch Liquidnet in Canada and later contributed to the growth of multi-asset financial technology firms 360 Trading Networks and Dash Financial Technologies. King will be based in Chicago.

Macrobond hires sales leaders to support growth in the Americas and UK

Macrobond Financial, an economic and financial data analytics provider, has appointed John Leffler as vice president for the Americas and Chris Seaman as regional managing director in the UK.

Leffler will be responsible for expanding Macrobond’s business in Canada, the US, and South America. Seaman will oversee existing and new business in the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and the Middle East and North Africa region.

Leffler joins Macrobond from Donnelley Financial Solutions, where he served as vice president and global head of venue sales. Before that, he spent 17 years at FactSet Research Systems in multiple senior roles. Seaman was previously global head of sales at trading and logistics firm Benteler Trading International. Before that, he was managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at software company Gtreasury and global head of corporate treasury management solutions at Bloomberg.

SoftSolutions! taps fixed income veteran Della-Porta

SoftSolutions!, a multi-market fixed income trading technology provider, has announced that James Della-Porta has joined as head of client engagement.  

Della-Porta has worked in the fixed income market for most of his career, particularly in the field of electronic distribution. He most recently held senior roles at Tradition Securities and Barclays Bank.

Gresham beefs up UK and Europe team

Gresham Technologies has appointed Harvey Colborne to lead business development and sales across the UK and Ireland.

Colborne brings experience of both the buy and sell side, specializing in post-trade and data technology. He previously held roles at JP Morgan, Schroders, and BNY Mellon, as well as at Interactive Data and IHS Markit, where he was sales director for corporate actions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and global relationship manager, respectively.

Baton Systems adds FX market expert

Baton Systems, a post-trade system provider for capital markets, has appointed Aaron Ayusa as director of client success. Ayusa will work with customers to solve foreign exchange-related issues and develop bespoke FX products.

He will report directly to Tucker Dona, head of business development at Baton. Ayusa, who is based in New York, has more than a decade of experience in the FX space, both in settlements and automation.

Before joining Baton, Ayusa spent 10 years at Credit Suisse, where he was most recently assistant vice president for cash products and metrics analysis.

BTON Financial taps former Bloomberg trading solutions CEO, Tierney

BTON Financial, an independent, broker-neutral dealing desk technology provider for investment managers, has appointed Ray Tierney, former global CEO of trading solutions at Bloomberg, as non-executive director.  

Tierney will help expand BTON’s US footprint and bring its technology and data-driven dealing desk to the global investment management community. While Tierney was at Bloomberg, he oversaw more than 600 employees across three business units and all aspects of the firm’s OMS business. Before that, he served as global head of trading and execution for Morgan Stanley Investment Management.