Senior:
Michael Piwowar
Commissioner
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Commissioner Michael Piwowar was first appointed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by President Barack Obama and was sworn in on August 15, 2013. Dr. Piwowar was designated Acting Chairman of the Commission by President Donald Trump from January 23, 2017 to May 4, 2017. Previously, Dr. Piwowar was the Republican chief economist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs under Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Richard Shelby (R-AL). He was the lead Republican economist on the four SEC-related titles of the Dodd-Frank Act and the JOBS Act. Dr. Piwowar also worked on a number of important SEC-related oversight issues under the jurisdiction of the Committee, such as securities, over-the-counter derivatives, investor protection, market structure and capital formation.
Rep. Bill Huizenga
Chairman
Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment Subcommittee
As a member of the prestigious House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Bill Huizenga (R-MI) has focused on removing government-imposed barriers to private sector job creation and increasing transparency across the federal government. Because of his steadfast leadership, Congressman Huizenga has been selected to Chair the important Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment Subcommittee for the 115th Congress. Congressman Huizenga will lead oversight efforts pertaining to the SEC’s operations, activities and initiatives to ensure that it fulfills its congressional mandate to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.
Robert W. Cook
President & Chief Executive Officer
FINRA
Robert W. Cook is President and CEO of FINRA, and Chairman of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.
From 2010–2013, Mr. Cook served as the Director of the Division of Trading and Markets of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Under his direction, the Division’s professionals were responsible for regulatory policy and oversight with respect to broker-dealers, securities exchanges and markets, clearing agencies and FINRA. In addition, the Division reviewed and acted on proposed rule filings and new product listings from self-regulatory organizations, including the securities exchanges and FINRA, and was responsible for implementing a range of initiatives and studies generated by the Dodd-Frank and JOBS Acts. He also directed the staff’s review of equity market structure.
Immediately prior to joining FINRA, and before his service at the SEC, Mr. Cook was a partner based in the Washington DC office of an international law firm. His practice focused on the regulation of securities markets and market intermediaries, including securities firms, exchanges, alternative trading systems and clearing agencies. During his years of private practice, Mr. Cook worked extensively on broker-dealer regulation, advising large and small firms on a wide range of compliance matters.
Mr. Cook earned his JD from Harvard Law School in 1992, a MS in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from the London School of Economics in 1989, and an AB in Social Studies from Harvard College in 1988.
Paul Atkins
Chief Executive
Patomak Global Partners
Paul Atkins is chief executive of Patomak Global Partners, LLC, a financial services consultancy that provides industry and regulatory expertise, delivers value in an efficient manner, and provides a competitive edge to companies navigating the global marketplace. He founded the company in 2009.
At Patomak, Mr. Atkins leads client work for financial services firms regarding an array of issues, including regulatory requirements, investigating and improving the effectiveness of compliance systems, and designing and implementing compliance policies and procedures. His work spans Dodd-Frank compliance, domestic regulatory advocacy, European regulatory advice, and corporate governance issues. Mr. Atkins regularly serves as an independent compliance consultant and a court-appointed monitor in settlements involving the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. His expert witness engagements include federal, state, and foreign litigation, as well as SEC matters.
Mr. Atkins concurrently serves as a champion of pro-growth financial market reform through his continued voluntary public service efforts. He serves as a member of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum advising on financial markets regulation and economic policy, and in the lead-up to the 2016 election and 2017 inauguration, he led the President-elect’s transition team for independent financial regulatory agencies. During the transition, Mr. Atkins served on the “landing teams” of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Prior to founding Patomak, from July 2002 to August 2008, Mr. Atkins served as a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Atkins received his A.B., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Wofford College and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law.
Panelists/Moderators
Len Amoruso
Partner
Murphy & McGonigle PC
Len Amoruso has nearly 30 years of financial industry experience, specifically in the legal, compliance and regulatory policy arenas. From 1989-1999, he was with the New York District office of FINRA, having served as Chief Counsel and, subsequently, Deputy Director. After FINRA, he spent more than 14 years at Knight Capital Group, Inc. — initially, as Chief Compliance Officer of its broker-dealer, and subsequently as General Counsel for the parent public company — managing the firm’s legal, compliance, internal audit, regulatory affairs and government relations.
Upon joining Murphy & McGonigle, Mr. Amoruso has focused his practice on securities compliance, regulation, market structure matters, as well as counseling broker-dealers and financial institutions on a wide array of legal, compliance and regulatory matters – including, regulatory requirements and controls, examinations, investigations, litigation, enforcement proceedings and corporate governance.
He has served on the board of the Nasdaq Exchanges and Direct Edge Exchanges, and is a member of STA’s Regulation & Compliance Committee.
Paul Baron
Managing Director
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Paul Baron is a Managing Director and Head of Americas Equity Derivative Flow Sales. In this role he is responsible for the distribution of equity derivative products/solutions for the Americas into global clients.
Paul joined BAML in July 2012 and worked in London for two years as Head of EMEA Equity Derivative Sales. Prior to joining BAML Paul ran Hedge Fund sales & Synthetic Equity Sales at Deutsche Bank in the Americas. Paul has over 18 years of experience in markets covering institutional clients in equity products.
Paul holds a BS from State University of New York at Plattsburgh.
Nanette Buziak
Head of Equity Trading
Voya Investment Management
Nanette Buziak is Managing Director and the Head of Equity Trading, responsible for all facets of equity trading and related operations, managing a team of six traders that transact equities, currencies and futures for their U.S. Equity Team. Ms. Buziak is also responsible for the Broker Vote process at Voya IM. Prior to joining Voya IM in 2005, she was a Senior Portfolio Manager at J.P. Morgan Asset Management for eight years, responsible for its structured equity portfolios. She started her career as a financial analyst at Bear Stearns & Company, Inc.
Ms. Buziak received a BBA in Applied Actuarial Mathematics from Bryant University in 1993 and holds FINRA Series 3, 7, 55 and 63 licenses. She is a member of NOIP, the National Organization of Investment Professionals, the ICI Equity Markets Advisory Committee, SIFMA’s Asset Management Group Equity Trading Committee and Trader Forum. Ms. Buziak was also the 2011 inaugural year winner of Traders Magazine Wall Street Women Industry Trailblazer Award and most recently, the 2017 Markets Media Trader of the Year Award Winner.
David Choate
Director of Global Sales
CAPIS
David Choate is the Director of Global Sales for CAPIS, a women-owned agency broker based in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Choate began his career with CAPIS in 1986; since then, he’s been responsible for marketing to institutional asset managers and fund sponsors in North America. With a background in compliance and Section 28(e) arrangements, he primarily covers ’40 Act funds and their sub-advisers. For more than 30 years, he has specialized in the commission management practices of investment managers and fund sponsors, and is a trusted resource in a variety of areas (best execution, transaction cost analysis, transition management, CSA/CCA [soft dollar arrangements], and commission recapture). Mr. Choate received his bachelor of business administration in Finance from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1986 and maintains Series 3, 4, 7, 8, 24, 53 and 63 licenses.
Douglas Cifu
Chief Executive Officer
Virtu Financial
Doug Cifu has been Virtu Financial’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Virtu Financial, Inc. since November 2013. He previously served as Virtu Financial’s President and Chief Operating Officer and has served on its board of directors since co-founding the firm in April 2008. Prior to co-founding Virtu, Mr. Cifu was a partner at the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he practiced corporate law from 1990-2008. Mr. Cifu also serves on the board of directors of Independent Bank Group, Inc., a regional bank holding company. He completed his J.D. at Columbia Law School in 1990 and received his BA from Columbia University in 1987, from which he graduated magna cum laude.
Tal Cohen
Senior Vice President, North American Equities
Nasdaq
Tal Cohen joined Nasdaq in April 2016 as Senior Vice President of North American Equities. Prior to joining Nasdaq, Mr. Cohen was Chief Executive Officer of Chi‐X Global Holdings, LLC from 2010–2016. From 2008–2010, he served as CEO of Chi‐X Americas. Prior to joining Chi-X, he held several senior leadership roles at Instinet, including Senior Vice President of Business Development and Product Strategy as well as Co‐head of electronic trading for North America, from 1999–2008. Before joining Instinet, Mr. Cohen served as M&A Manager at American Express; building out its strategic investment portfolio. He started at Arthur Andersen as an Auditor and Senior Business Advisor focused on the Financial Services and Telecom industries.
Mr. Cohen currently serves as a Director on the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) Board and as a Director on the Canadian Depository for Securities (CDS) Board. He is a member of IIROC’s Human Resources committee.
Mr. Cohen holds a BA from SUNY Albany, a MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and is a Certified Public Accountant. He also holds FINRA Series 24, 7 and 63 licenses, the CSI Partners, Directors, and Senior Officers Designation (PDO).
Chris Concannon
President and Chief Operating Officer
CBOE Holdings
Chris Concannon is President and Chief Operating Officer at CBOE Holdings, joining the firm in 2017 as part of the Bats Global Markets acquisition. He is responsible for CBOE’s trading businesses globally, as well as Technology/Operations, Risk and Marketing.
Prior to the acquisition by CBOE, Mr. Concannon led Bats’ successful April 2015 initial public offering. Under his guidance, the 300-person company operated the No. 1 market for the trading of European equities, U.S. equities (excluding auctions) and exchange-traded funds, as well as a growing U.S. options business. He also led the firm into the global foreign exchange industry with the acquisition of Hotspot FX.
A noted global market structure expert, Mr. Concannon has more than 20 years of experience as an exchange executive, trading participant and regulator. This includes six years at Nasdaq and five years at Virtu. He has also worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission; the law firm Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP; Island ECN and Instinet.
Tom Conigliaro
Head of Brokerage and Research Services
IHS Markit
Tom Conigliaro is head of Brokerage and Research Services group. Mr. Conigliaro has responsibility for IHS Markit’s Commission Manager, Vote, Calendar and HUB offerings. He is regularly cited in the press on regulatory developments around research evaluation and payment. Prior to joining Markit in 2013, Mr. Conigliaro worked at investment banking boutique Marlin & Associates where he advised clients on their M&A activities in financial technology, information services, healthcare and media. He has more than 25 years’ experience on Wall Street, holding senior roles in sales and trading, sales management and securities services at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Conigliaro holds an MBA from the University of South Florida and a BS from Widener University. He also holds the CFA designation.
Cromwell Coulson
President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
OTC Markets Group
Cromwell Coulson is President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of OTC Markets Group, Inc., responsible for the company’s overall growth and strategic direction. Since acquiring OTC Markets’ predecessor business in 1997, Mr. Coulson has transformed the company from a privately-held publisher of broker-dealer quotations into a publicly-traded company operating three public markets for 10,000 securities that trade nearly $200 billion in dollar volume annually. He is a strong advocate of improving access to capital for small companies, supporting a diverse ecosystem of broker-dealers and empowering investors with information. He has testified before Congress and spoken on these and other issues at numerous industry conferences.
Prior to OTC Markets, Mr. Coulson was an institutional trader and portfolio manager at Carr Securities Corporation. He holds an OPM from Harvard Business School and received his BBA from Southern Methodist University. He is Chairman of the FINRA Market Regulation Committee that advises FINRA on rulemaking and trading issues. He is also a non-Executive Director of the S. W. Mitchell European Fund LP, and its feeder funds, managed by S. W. Mitchell Capital, a specialist European equities investment boutique based in London.
Kevin Cronin
Global Head of Trading
Invesco
Kevin Cronin is the Global Head of Trading for Invesco and is responsible for trading desks in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas. Mr. Cronin joined Invesco in 1997 as Head of Listed Equity Trading for AIM Investments and later became director of Equity Trading. In January 2007, Invesco named Mr. Cronin the Global Head of Equity Trading. Before joining Invesco, he was director of Equity Trading for First Union Capital Management in Charlotte, North Carolina, and served as the lead fund manager of the Evergreen Enhanced Equity Fund.
Mr. Cronin is a member of the SEC Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee (EMSAC), Chairman of the NMS Subcommittee of the EMSAC, a member of Board of Directors of Luminex LLC, a member of ICI’s Equity Markets Committee, the BATS Exchange Institutional Advisory Committee, the Georgia Securities Association, and the Atlanta Society of Financial Analysts. He is the former Chairman of the NYSE Institutional Traders Advisory Committee and a former member of the NASDAQ Quality of Markets Committee. Mr. Cronin received a BA from Indiana University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. He is also a CFA charterholder.
Stacey Cunningham
Chief Operating Officer
NYSE Group
Stacey Cunningham is Chief Operating Officer of the NYSE Group, which includes the New York Stock Exchange and a diverse range of equity and equity options exchanges, all wholly-owned subsidiaries of Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE). Ms. Cunningham oversees the management of several units including cash equities markets, relationship management, product management and NYSE Governance Services.
Prior to serving as COO, Ms. Cunningham was President of NYSE Governance Services, a leading provider of governance, compliance and education solutions for companies and their boards. She also served as Head of Sales & Relationship Management at NYSE, where she managed the sales team for U.S. cash equities and options markets. Before joining NYSE, Ms. Cunningham was Head of Transaction Services Sales at NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. after joining the company in 2007 as Director, Capital Markets. She began her career on the NYSE trading floor and, as a specialist and VP of Trading for Banc of America Specialist, Inc., she managed the auction market in assigned securities. Ms. Cunningham earned her BS in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University.
Hubert De Jesus
Global Head Market Structure and Electronic Trading
BlackRock
Hubert De Jesus, Managing Director, is Global Head of the Market Structure and Electronic Trading team within BlackRock’s Trading and Liquidity Strategies Group. He is responsible for overseeing the firm’s electronic trading initiatives, adapting trading solutions for market structure changes, and conducting execution research across all asset classes. Mr. De Jesus is a member of the Advisory Committee for the CTA/CQ, UTP and Limit Up/Limit Down National Market System Plans.
Mr. De Jesus’s service with the firm dates back to 2003, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. Prior to assuming his current role, he managed a team of traders responsible for equity and FX execution for the Index and Scientific Active Equity businesses. Prior to joining BlackRock, Mr. De Jesus worked at Long Term Capital Management (later JWM Partners) as a strategist focused on fixed income relative value trading and developing risk management and trading tools, and at Goldman Sachs as a programmer analyst. Mr. De Jesus earned a BS in Economics and a BS in Engineering, both from the University of Pennsylvania, in 1993.
John Donahue
Head of Equities
Fidelity Capital Markets
John Donahue is a Senior Vice President and Head of Equities for Fidelity Capital Markets (FCM), the institutional trading arm of Fidelity Investments providing trading, products and services to a wide array of clients and Fidelity businesses. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing and other financial products and services to more than 20 million individuals, institutions and financial intermediaries.
Over his 28 years at Fidelity, Mr. Donahue has had a number of leadership roles within Fidelity’s asset management division as well as its institutional brokerage operation. He currently oversees FCM’s equity offering, which includes electronic trading solutions, domestic and international agency trading, options trading, portfolio trading and transition management.
Mr. Donahue is actively involved with the National Organization of Investment Professionals (NOIP) and serves on the Board of Directors. He is a member of SIFMA’s Equity Markets and Trading Committee
Brian Fagen
Head of Equities Execution Strategy
Deutsche Bank
Brian R. Fagen is a Managing Director and Head of Equities Execution Strategy.
Mr. Fagen’s current responsibilities cover the Cash, Portfolio and Electronic Trading businesses including Market Structure and Commission Management. He was previously Head of Global Electronic Trading Distribution and Co-Head of Liquid Market Sales Americas at Barclays Capital, a role he also held at Lehman Brothers before joining Barclays Capital in 2008. Mr. Fagen spent two years at Lehman Brothers, after having held several senior roles at Morgan Stanley, including Head of Program Trading and Sales, Head of Equity Futures and Head of Money Manager Derivative Sales from 1987 – 2006.
Mr. Fagen is currently a board member of BIDS Trading and the Rutgers Road to Wall Street Program. He previously held board positions at BATS, The Mead School and The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Westchester County, NY. He holds a BS in Accounting from Rutgers University.
Susan Estes
Chief Executive Officer
OpenDoor Trading
Susan Estes is a chief executive with exceptional depth and understanding of the fixed income markets. Ms. Estes has over 30 years of experience trading U.S. Treasuries and related fixed-income products; the majority spent on starting, developing and managing domestic and international high-quality rates operations and related businesses for large financial institutions including Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, as well as start-ups.
Ms. Estes is a past member of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC), a Federal Advisory Committee. The TBAC meets quarterly with Treasury to provide advice on funding requirements and separately with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to address topical market issues. Previously she served as a Member of the Board of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), a leading financial industry trade group whose mission is to promote effective and efficient regulation, and facilitate more open, competitive and efficient global capital markets. Formerly, Ms. Estes chaired the Government and Agency Division of the Bond Market Association, now SIFMA.
John Fennell
Chief Risk Officer
OCC
John Fennell is Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization.
Mr. Fennell is responsible for implementing OCC’s risk management strategy. He also oversees OCC’s model validation and enterprise risk management departments, along with security services, business continuity and disaster recovery, and vendor risk management areas. Since joining OCC in 1993, the vast majority of Mr. Fennell’s career has been spent in the firm’s risk management department, where he most recently served as Executive Vice President, Financial Risk Management. Mr. Fennell currently serves on the Executive Committee of CCP12, the global association of central counterparties. He also is an affiliate member with IOSCO, and is active on the SIFMA Credit and Margin Committee as well as other industry margin and risk management committees.
Mr. Fennell graduated with an MBA in Finance from DePaul University and a BS from Northern Illinois University.
Brady Fletcher
Managing Director, TSX Venture Exchange
TMX Group
Brady Fletcher joined TMX Group in October 2016 and is the Managing Director of the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV). He is responsible for not only optimizing the client experience for all issuers and investors, but developing and implementing a multi-faceted strategy to drive sustainable long-term growth in a key element of the world’s most successful capital formation continuum. Based in Vancouver, Mr. Fletcher has spent his career in Canada’s venture market, with specialized experience working with growth stage issuers to develop financing, M&A and business development strategies. Most recently, he served as Managing Director of Vancouver-based Sea to Sky Equities Inc., an independent advisory practice working with early-stage companies. Mr. Fletcher was also Founder & CEO of Blackbook Technologies Inc., a start-up technology firm. Previously, he served as Director of Strategic Relationships at Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and held senior investment banking positions at Canaccord Genuity Corp. He holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Queens University.
Sara Furber
Head of Listings
IEX Group
Sara Furber leads IEX’s listings business, overseeing the development and launch of a new listings market for companies built to protect their stocks, their shareholders and their reputations. Prior to joining IEX, Ms. Furber held several senior executive positions at Morgan Stanley, where she was a Managing Director and member of the Management Committee. Previously, she was Chief Operating Officer for Global Corporate and Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, after leading Investor Relations for Merrill during the credit crisis and through its merger with Bank of America. Ms. Furber started her career in investment banking and has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University.
Joe Gawronski
President
Rosenblatt Securities
Joe Gawronski is the President and COO of Rosenblatt Securities, an agency-only institutional broker founded in 1979. In addition to its upstairs single stock and program trading efforts, the firm is the largest floor broker on the NYSE and is widely regarded as one of the leading global experts on market structure, financial regulation and exchanges. Rosenblatt Securities also has a growing fundamental research offering that includes proprietary financial services and TMT coverage, as well as distribution partnerships with leading banks and brokers in developed, emerging and frontier markets in EMEA and Asia. Mr. Gawronski is formerly a securities and M&A lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell, an equity salesman at Salomon Smith Barney, and COO of Linx, a block trading ATS. He received his BA in Public and International Affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School and his JD from Harvard Law School.
Jenny Hadiaris
Head of Global Market Structure
Cowen & Company
Jenny Hadiaris is a Managing Director and Head of Global Market Structure at Cowen & Company, an investment bank focused on growth-oriented companies and institutional investors. She joined Cowen in December 2016. Prior to Cowen, Ms. Hadiaris was with Deutsche Bank where she was the Head of Global Market Structure, Americas within the equity trading division. Prior to that, she spent ten years at RBC Capital Markets serving in a similar capacity. Ms. Hadiaris graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Psychology.
Bryan Harkins
Head of U.S. Equities & Global FX
CBOE Holdings
Bryan Harkins is Head of U.S. Equities and Global FX at CBOE Holdings, and joined the firm in 2017 as part of the Bats Global Markets acquisition. Based in New York, Mr. Harkins oversees sales, product development, listings and competitive strategy for the company’s U.S. equities exchanges, its suite of market data and access services products as well as the firm’s global foreign exchange business.
Mr. Harkins joined Bats in January 2014 when Direct Edge Holdings was acquired by Bats, creating the largest U.S. equities stock exchange operator (excluding auctions). As Chief Operating Officer at Direct Edge, his leadership was instrumental in the firm’s growth into one of the largest players in the U.S. equities market.
During his nearly 20 years in the electronic trading space, Mr. Harkins has also held numerous technical, operational, product and senior sales positions at Instinet, Brut and Nasdaq.
Natalie Horton
Americas Head of Equity Finance Trading
UBS
Natalie Horton is a Managing Director and the Americas Head of Equity Finance Trading at UBS.
In this role, Ms. Horton oversees delta one trading, funding trading and securities lending in the region. Prior to UBS, she spent 15 years at Deutsche Bank, where she was most recently Global Head of Equities Funding and Securities Lending. She held several roles there both within Prime Finance and Equity Derivatives, including Head of Synthetic Equity Trading and Head of U.S. Variance Swap Trading. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Ms. Horton was at Morgan Stanley for eight years, where she was an equity derivatives trader.
Ms. Horton has a BA in Economics from New York University.
Daniel Keegan
Co-head Global Equities
Citigroup
Dan Keegan is Co-head of Global Equities at Citi. Based in New York, Mr. Keegan is jointly responsible for the oversight of Citi’s Cash Equities, Derivatives, Delta One and Electronic Trading operations around the globe.
Mr. Keegan joined Citi in 2007 as part of Citi’s purchase of Automated Trading Desk (ATD), where he was on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors. Mr. Keegan has held several roles at Citi including Head of Equities Americas, Head of Global Cash Equities, and Head of Global Electronic Trading.
Prior to joining ATD, where he was responsible for building its Institutional Equities business, Mr. Keegan held numerous management positions at J.P. Morgan. Currently, he participates as an observer on the board of BATS Global Markets.
Mr. Keegan is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, as well as Notre Dame Law School.
Vlad Khandros
Global Head of Market Structure and Liquidity Strategy
UBS
Vlad Khandros is the Global Head of Market Structure and Liquidity Strategy at UBS, based in New York. He is responsible for the firm’s global ICS (Investor Client Services) cross asset market structure team and UBS’ Alternative Trading System (ATS), as well as focusing on exchange and alternative venue analysis, and enhancing the firm’s order routing logic. He advises clients globally on market structure and regulatory issues, as well as Electronic Trading strategy, and plays an active role in evaluating strategic investments for UBS.
Mr. Khandros joined UBS in 2011 from Liquidnet, where he was Global Co-head of Corporate Strategy, responsible for business development, market structure and government relations. There he helped build their sell-side ATS, and evolved the firm’s core negotiation product and algo offering. He also led due diligence on several of the firm’s potential investments.
Mr. Khandros is a member of numerous equity market industry committees, including the IEX Quality of Markets Committee, MatchNow User Advisory Committee, Neo Exchange Institutional Circle, NYSE Director Candidate Recommendation Committee, SIFMA Equity Markets & Trading Committee, and STA Trading Issues Equities Committee. He previously sat on the boards of BIDS Trading, LP and Chi-X Global LLC. He is a board member of Stay Pawsitive, Inc. a not-for-profit charity focused on preventing animal cruelty and law enforcement dogs.
He holds a BA in Economics and a BS in Political Science from Rutgers University. He completed a Harvard Business School Executive Education focused on Building New Businesses in Established Organizations. In 2011, he was ranked Rising Star for Finance in Forbes magazine’s “30 under 30.”
Manisha Kimmel
Chief Regulatory Officer
Thomson Reuters
Manisha Kimmel is Chief Regulatory Officer, Wealth Management at Thomson Reuters where she focuses on identifying regulatory upstream risk and influencing strategic regulatory initiatives by acting as a regulatory liaison on behalf of Thomson Reuters and its customers. Ms. Kimmel formerly worked as Managing Director of the Financial Information Forum (FIF). She spearheaded FIF’s response to market structure initiatives by identifying and driving industry issues to successful resolution. She is a member of SEC’s Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee (EMSAC) where she chairs the Customer Issues Subcommittee. Additionally, she serves on the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) Development Advisory Group.
Prior to FIF, Ms. Kimmel worked on numerous engagements assisting firms in strategic and technology decisions in her capacity as Senior Industry Consultant for Jordan & Jordan. She also held positions at ADP in its Strategic Investments Group within its brokerage division. In addition to completing coursework at Stanford University’s Learning, Design and Technology program, she has a BS in Finance and Information Systems from the Wharton School and a BS in Systems Engineering with a focus in Telecommunications from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mehmet Kinak
Head of Global Equity Market Structure and Electronic Trading
T. Rowe Price
Mehmet Kinak is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. He is the head of Global Equity Market Structure and Electronic Trading. Mr. Kinak’s primary focus is electronic and program trading, market structure analysis and transaction cost analysis. He joined T. Rowe Price in 2000 and worked as a portfolio accounting associate, investment liaison, portfolio implementation manager and electronic trader before assuming his current role in 2014. Mr. Kinak earned a BS in Finance from Virginia Polytechnic University.
Todd Lard
Vice President, Trading Operations
Charles Schwab & Co.
As Vice President of Trading Operations, Todd Lard has responsibilities for aspects of order routing, execution quality, regulatory trade reporting and market structure issues for Charles Schwab’s equity, options and futures trading. Mr. Lard has more than 25 years of experience in retail-based brokerage services. Since joining Charles Schwab in 1993, Mr. Lard has been instrumental in the development of multiple aspects of the Retail trading experience. He holds Series 7, 8, 24, 55 and 63 licenses, and is a member of the STA Retail Advisory Committee and the SIFMA Listed Options Committee.
Dave LaValle
U.S. Head of SPDR ETF Capital Markets
State Street Global Advisors
David V. LaValle is the U.S. Head of SPDR ETF Capital Markets at State Street Global Advisors. Mr. LaValle and his team are focused on educating investors, promoting SPDR ETF liquidity and enhancing the SPDR client experience. In this role, he is responsible for sales and client relationships with SPDR ETF participants in the U.S., including institutional and intermediary buy-side clients, as well as authorized participants, electronic market makers, broker-dealers, proprietary trading desks, Stock Exchanges and Alternative Trading Systems on the sell-side.
Prior to joining SSGA, Mr. LaValle was the head of NASDAQ’s Exchange Traded Product Marketplace where he was responsible for the strategy and business development of the ETP business. He primarily focused on market structure innovation, liquidity programming, and relationship management with market makers, order flow providers and issuers. Prior to NASDAQ, he was a Managing Partner at Kellogg Group where he managed equity trading desks on the American Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange.
Dave earned his BA degree from Georgetown University, served on the Security Traders Association of New York (STANY) Board and holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 55 and 63 licenses.
Ali Lombardo
Head of Americas Trading
Marshall Wace
Ali Lombardo is the Head of Americas Trading where she is responsible for trading cash equities and derivatives. She joined the firm in 2014. Prior to joining Marshall Wace, Ms. Lombardo worked at Goldman Sachs for five years. For four of those years, she was a market maker on the U.S. cash equities desk, focusing primarily on the Healthcare sector. She spent her first year working on the Goldman Sachs electronic trading sales and product development desks.
Ms. Lombardo graduated with a BA in Psychology from Harvard University in 2009.
Matt Lyons
Global Equity Trading Manager
The Capital Group
Matt Lyons has worked in the equity trading area for The Capital Group since 1995. Currently, he is the Global Equity Trading Manager with responsibility for trading operations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Mr. Lyons began trading in 1987. Prior to Capital, he worked on the sell side. He has worked on the FIX protocol U.S. steering committee, STALA board of directors, NYSE Institutional Trading Advisory, and is currently the chair of the ICI equity markets advisory committee. He holds a BS in Economics from the University of California, Riverside and an MBA from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. He is also a CFA charterholder.
Jessica Mandel
Head of Legislative Affairs
Credit Suisse Securities (USA)
Jessica Mandel is a Director and Head of Legislative Affairs for Credit Suisse Securities (USA), based in Washington DC. She is involved in U.S. federal regulatory, legislative and agency matters impacting the Bank and its clients, focusing on issues such as overall equity and fixed income market structure, hedge funds and private equity, global bank issues, market liquidity, securities lending and the Volcker Rule.
Immediately prior to joining Credit Suisse, Ms. Mandel was a Director of Legislative Affairs for Washington lobbying firm Tassey & Associates. There she represented major financial institutions such as GE Capital, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Mastercard and Bank of America on a wide range of legislative and regulatory policy matters.
Ms. Mandel worked on Capitol Hill for Congressman Culberson (Texas) during the introduction of the Dodd-Frank Bill in 2009 and at the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2010 during the mid-term elections. Prior to coming to Washington DC, Ms. Mandel was an Associate Director for a commercial real estate firm, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler in Houston, TX, where she assisted with over 30 contract negotiations and procured over $300 million in lending for clients such as J.P. Morgan, Prudential and self-storage REITs.
Ms. Mandel has a BS in Business Administration-Marketing from San Diego State University and a JD from the University of Denver.
Judy McDonald
Head of Compliance Technology, Enterprise Order Management and Enterprise Risk
Susquehanna International Group
Judy McDonald has been an IT professional for more than 20 years, with most of her experience being in the financial industry, including front-, middle- and back-office technology for private trading firms. She is a member of the SEC CAT Advisory Committee and Development Advisory Group. Ms. McDonald is an Associate Director at Susquehanna International Group, Head of Compliance Technology, Enterprise Order Management and Enterprise Risk. Prior to joining SIG, she was an IT manager at BNP Paribas. She has also been involved with proprietary trading, market making, institutional brokerage, order routing, position management, risk, clearing and settlement systems. Ms. McDonald received her MS in Applied Mathematics from The George Washington University.
Joseph Mecane
Global Head of Electronic Equities Product
Citadel Securities
Bio forthcoming…
Denis Medvedsek
Managing Director
Two Sigma Securities
Denis Medvedsek is a Managing Director at Two Sigma Securities where he oversees the Options and ETFs businesses. Prior to joining Two Sigma in May 2015, Mr. Medvedsek was employed by KCG and its predecessor firm Knight Capital, where he was responsible for the Options Market Making business. During this time, he also served two terms on the Board of Directors of the International Securities Exchange. From 2002 to 2009, Mr. Medvedsek was Director of Automated Market Making and Head of Options Algorithmic Trading at Credit Suisse. Prior to 2002, he held various trading roles within equity derivatives and emerging markets derivatives at JP Morgan. Mr. Medvedsek holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Harvard University.
Tara Muller
Head of Off-Exchange Liquidity
Virtu
Tara Muller is currently a senior leader on Virtu’s Liquidity Sales team responsible for the firm’s off-exchange liquidity offerings, including VEQ (formerly Acknowledge Equities and Knight Link) and the MatchIt ATS. She served in a similar capacity at KCG Holdings before Virtu acquired the firm in July 2017. Ms. Muller’s responsibilities include new business strategy, product development and account management. She is also part of the firm’s Retail Order Routing Committee.
Ms. Muller joined Virtu (then Knight Capital) in 2006 to build the Knight Link business and was a Managing Director in Knight’s Electronic Trading Group. Over the last 10 years, Virtu has become one of the largest providers of off-exchange liquidity in the U.S. equities market and is an essential source of liquidity for the street’s smart order routers and ATSs.
Prior to joining Knight, Ms. Muller spent more than 10 years at Reuters America (now Thomson Reuters) where she was responsible for sales of Reuters desktop products, fundamental and estimate content, and real-time data feeds.
Jennifer Nayar
Chief Executive Officer
Vela Trading Technologies
Jennifer Nayar is Vela’s CEO, joining in June 2015. Based in the firm’s New York headquarters, Ms. Nayar is responsible for all aspects of Vela’s business globally. She has been successfully leading and driving the growth of market data businesses since 2007, when she served as Global Head of Market Data Products and Business Operations for the New York Stock Exchange. She has also held senior management positions at REDI Global Technologies, NYFIX, Omgeo, Mercator Software and the London Stock Exchange.
Ms. Nayar was voted CEO of the Year by Markets Media in the 2017 Markets Choice Awards. In 2016, she was the recipient of Markets Media’s Markets Choice Women in Finance Award for Excellence in Trading Technology. She was also included in Institutional Investor’s 2017 and 2016 Trading Technology 40, a ranking of the 40 most influential individuals in the trading technology space. In 2014, she was honored by Traders Magazine with its Women on Wall Street award for her excellence in leadership. She was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Security Traders Association of New York (STANY) in August 2017.
Andy Nybo, a Director at Burton-Taylor International Consulting, has more than 30 years’ experience in research and technology in global capital markets. Andy joined Burton-Taylor in March 2017 and is responsible for its Exchange vertical, focusing on how competitive pressures are forcing shifts in business models and strategic initiatives of exchanges as they seek to expand revenue across multiple business segments.
Andy joined Burton-Taylor from TABB Group where he was a managing director in its research practice. At TABB he was responsible for managing TABB’s listed derivatives practice focusing on listed and OTC securities markets examining how regulation, technology and shifting investor behaviors impact global derivatives market structure. Andy has written numerous studies on derivatives markets with a particular focus on technology, market structure and how the buy side and sell side are adapting to the changing environment.
Andy presents regularly at a wide range of industry conferences and provides commentary for media outlets including Bloomberg TV, CBS, CNBC, Fox Business News and Reuters TV. He also has been quoted extensively in major business publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the Financial Times.
Andy is a member of the Board of Governors of the Security Traders Association and a member of its Listed Options Committee. He also has been a Board Member of the Carolina Securities Traders Association since 2012.
Joel Oswald
Principal
Williams & Jensen, PLLC
Joel Oswald is a principal at the law and lobbying firm, Williams & Jensen. He specializes in a legislative and regulatory practice focused on financial services policy. With over 17 years of public and private sector experience, Mr. Oswald works with clients on a range of legislative and regulatory policy issues, including securities, banking, consumer finance, and insurance regulation, Regulation NMS and equity market structure rules, and the Dodd-Frank Act.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Oswald served on the professional staff of the Subcommittee on International Trade and Finance and later the Subcommittee on Securities and Investment, both of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He is a graduate of Evangel University and received an MBA from Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School.
Sapna Patel
Executive Director, Head of Americas Market Structure & Liquidity Strategy
Morgan Stanley
Sapna C. Patel is the Head of Market Structure and Liquidity Strategy at Morgan Stanley for the Americas and is an Executive Director on the Morgan Stanley Electronic Trading desk. In her current role, Ms. Patel focuses on market structure issues, regulatory developments, order routing and liquidity strategies, as well as business development. Prior to joining the desk in 2008, she spent three years as an institutional equities coverage attorney in the Morgan Stanley Legal and Compliance Division. Ms. Patel began her career at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Division of Trading and Markets (formerly the Division of Market Regulation), and held various positions during her five years at the agency. Ms. Patel holds a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Maryland School of Law and BS degrees in Criminal Justice and Psychology from American University.
Curtis Pfeiffer
Chief Business Officer
Pragma Trading
Curtis Pfeiffer heads sales, marketing and account management for Pragma. Mr. Pfeiffer joined the firm in 2009, after five years at Banc of America Securities, where he was a Managing Director and Head of Electronic Sales for both buy-side and sell-side clients. Previously, Mr. Pfeiffer worked at Bear Stearns and Instinet in a number of sales and sales-management positions across a variety of products, including program trading, direct access, independent research and commission management.
Brett Redfearn
Global Head of Equity Market Structure
J.P. Morgan, Global Equities
Brett W. Redfearn is J.P. Morgan Securities’ Global Head of Equity Market Structure. In this role, Mr. Redfearn examines how technologies, regulations and business trends are changing equities, options and futures trading across the Americas, Europe and Asia. His responsibilities include addressing market structure implications for electronic trading products, developing policy positions on regulatory issues, advocating for positive market structure policy changes, managing relationships with exchanges and educating clients on market structure developments. Mr. Redfearn publishes market structure commentary on a regular basis, including a monthly Market Structure Update that is widely read and highly regarded by institutional traders and investors globally.
Previously, Mr. Redfearn was J.P. Morgan’s Global Head of Liquidity, where he managed smart order routing, internal crossing and algorithmic trading. He also held similar positions at Bear Stearns and, before that, managed the transactions business for the American Stock Exchange. He is Chairman of SIFMA’s Equity Markets & Trading Committee, and is a participant on STA’s Market Structure Analysts Committee and the Canadian STA’s Trading Issues Committee. Previously, Mr. Redfearn served on the boards of Bats Global Markets, BATS Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange and BIDS Trading.
Ray Ross
CTO and Founder
Clearpool Group
Ray Ross is CTO and a Founder of Clearpool Group. As the Chief Technical Innovator and leader of operations for the company, Mr. Ross leads the creation and deployment of electronic trading technologies. He oversees all software development, network infrastructure, market connectivity, implementation and support. He has more than a decade of industry experience, rising to managing director at Knight Capital Group. While there, he was responsible for the technology behind Knight Direct, the firm’s electronic agency algorithmic and market access platform.
Mr. Ross attended Trinity College, earning a BS in Computer Science. Upon graduating, he started his career as a software consultant at Tallan Inc., a technology and business process consulting service to enterprise and mid-sized companies.
Peter Santori
Chief Regulatory Officer
Chicago Stock Exchange
Peter D. Santori is currently Executive Vice President and Chief Regulatory Officer of the Chicago Stock Exchange, Inc. (CHX), and has served in this role since 2012.
Mr. Santori is responsible for the regulatory oversight of all CHX Participants to ensure that the trading activity on the facilities of CHX complies with all applicable CHX and SEC rules and regulations. He served as CHX’s Chief Compliance Officer from 2012–2015, where he created, staffed and directed CHX’s compliance function, and was responsible for establishing and implementing policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure that CHX fulfilled its compliance and regulatory obligations as a self-regulatory organization.
Mr. Santori previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of thinkorswim Group Inc. in 2008, 2009. At thinkorswim, Mr. Santori provided oversight, guidance and direction regarding all legal, compliance and regulatory matters for thinkorswim and its subsidiaries, including Investools, Inc. He previously served at FINRA from 1994–2008, and 2010–2012, where he held positions of increasing responsibility, culminating with the position of Chief Counsel to the Market Regulation Department. He received a BS in Finance from Saint Joseph’s University, a MBA in International Business Administration from Temple University, a JD from the Widener University Law Center, an LLM in Securities and Financial Regulation, and an LLM in Taxation both from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a member of the Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania bars.
Shane Swanson
Chief Compliance Officer
Thesys CAT, LLC
Shane Swanson is currently Chief Compliance Officer of Thesys CAT LLC, the Plan Processor for the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT). In this capacity, he is responsible for ensuring the CAT system is built and operating in a compliant manner. He is also responsible for executing the CAT NMS requirements, including all compliance matters and operations surrounding market structure related to the platform. In his role, Mr. Swanson oversees the accuracy and reporting of the data, as well as the health of the system functionality of the CAT technology platform.
Mr. Swanson is an experienced financial services leader, General Counsel and Compliance Officer. He most recently served as Director of U.S. Market Structure at Citadel. Prior to that, he was at Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. as Managing Director and CEO of Automated Trading Desk Financial Services, LLC. He was also Partner, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Eladian Partners LP. Mr. Swanson holds a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law and a Baccalaureus Artium et Scientae from the University of South Carolina.
Frank Troise
President & Chief Executive Officer
ITG
Francis J. Troise was appointed ITG President, CEO, and board member in January 2016. He is aligning ITG’s organization and culture with a new strategic operating plan that drives significant investments in personnel and technology, with a focus on core liquidity, execution and analytics. He brings a unique background to this assignment – deep knowledge of ITG, its products and customers – combined with the broad perspective of a seasoned outsider.
From 1997–2005, Mr. Troise acquired an appreciation of ITG clients and services. During that period at ITG, he held positions of Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Client Site Sales and Trading.
In the years between his ITG engagements, Mr. Troise contributed to J.P. Morgan’s growth in electronic trading and execution services business. In five years, under his leadership, J.P. Morgan became one of the top equities trading firms, more than tripling market share in electronic trading in the U.S. and Europe. He last served J.P. Morgan as Head of Execution Services, a global role covering agency execution business for all asset classes in the investment bank.
Prior to J.P. Morgan, Mr. Troise served as Global Head of Equities Electronic Trading at Barclays Capital and Head of U.S. Equities Electronic Trading at Lehman Brothers. He has also held management consulting positions at Booz Allen and Accenture, and served on the boards of BIDS Holdings, the Boston Equities Exchange, LeveL ATS, Chi-X Global Holdings, and Neovest.
Mr. Troise earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Boston University, a MS in Operations Research from Columbia University, and a MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
Bob Walley
Principal
Deloitte & Touche LLP
Bob Walley is a Principal in Deloitte Advisory’s Financial Services practice where he is the Securities Industry Leader. He focuses on the operations and technology functions for Broker Dealers, Exchanges and Financial Markets Utilities. For more than 33 years, Mr. Walley has been helping deliver solutions across the trade life cycle, compliance and operations. He has a deep understanding of clearing and settlement, margin, collateral management, trading operations, and regulatory reporting.
For the past five years, Mr. Walley and his team have worked with the exchanges, FINRA and the SEC in the development of the Consolidated Audit Trail NMS Plan, operationalizing CAT NMS LLC., and working with large and small broker dealers to develop and implement new CAT reporting solutions.
Jon Werts
Head of Midwest Equities and Fixed Income
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Jon Werts is Managing Director and head of Midwest Equities and Fixed Income at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In this role, Mr. Werts is responsible for all Sales and Relationship Management for the Midwest Region.
Prior to being named to this role in early 2016, Mr. Werts was head of Broker Dealer Execution and Electronic Derivatives in the Global Equities Electronic Division. He joined the firm in August 2007.
Previously, he was vice president of Derivative Products for the New York Stock Exchange in Chicago, where he served as head of the U.S. Options business. From 2001 – 2005, he was vice president of Client and Trading Support at the Pacific Exchange in San Francisco, where he oversaw the creation of the exchange’s new electronic options trading platform, and managed the customer service and system support departments. Earlier in his career, he was an equity specialist at Pershing Trading where he managed the west coast equity market making division.
Mr. Werts serves on the Board of Directors of The Options Clearing Corporation, Redi Technologies and the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago. He has also previously served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the East Bay Regional Parks Foundation.
Tom Wittman
Head of Global Trading and Market Services
Nasdaq
Thomas (Tom) A. Wittman is Executive Vice President, Head of Global Trading and Market Services. In this role, he is responsible for the management, operations and strategic direction of Nasdaq’s diverse set of global businesses spanning cash equities, clearing, commodities, derivatives, fixed income and trade management services. Mr. Wittman also serves as CEO and President of The Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq), Nasdaq PHLX LLC (PHLX), Nasdaq BX Inc. (BX), Ensoleillement Inc. and is CEO of Nasdaq ISE, ISE GEMX, and ISE MRX, LLC. He is currently an Exchange Director and an Industry Director on the Boards of The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), respectively.
During his tenure at Nasdaq, Mr. Wittman has served in various leadership roles including Senior Vice President, Head of U.S. Equities and Derivatives, where he led the company’s rapid growth in U.S. equity options and, most recently, as Executive Vice President, Global Head of Equities, where he was responsible for Nasdaq cash equity, equity derivatives and trade management services businesses. In 2016, he led the acquisitions of Chi-X Canada and International Securities Exchange.
Mr. Wittman joined Nasdaq in 2008 as part of Nasdaq’s acquisition of the Phlx. At that time, he was Senior Vice President in charge of Phlx’s trading technology across equities and options as well as regulatory technology and back office systems. Mr. Wittman, who joined Phlx in 1987 as a software developer, was instrumental in guiding Phlx into the electronic age of trading. He holds a BS in Computer Science.
Performers
Mike Barclay
Managing Director
ITG
Oz Pearlman
Entertainer/Mentalist
Oz Pearlman is a world-class entertainer and one of the busiest mentalists in the country. He developed an interest in magic at a young age and what started as a hobby quickly became a lifelong passion. After a couple of years spent working on Wall Street, Oz decided to pursue his dream and become a full time entertainer. He has now been dazzling audiences with his unique mind-reading ability for over a decade. Oz’s client list reads like a who’s who of politicians, professional athletes, A-list celebrities, and Fortune 500 companies. His natural charisma and charm make him the perfect choice for corporate events and private parties alike. Oz’s unique blend of mentalism and mind-reading create an interactive experience that is redefining the very nature of a magic show…one that truly needs to be seen to be believed. In the summer of 2015, Oz was featured on TV’s number one rated show, America’s Got Talent. Week after week, he captivated the country with never-before-seen mentalism routines and quickly became a fan favorite, finishing in third place out of thousands of acts. Oz has also appeared on a variety of both national and international networks, a few of which include NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The TODAY Show & ABC World News and been profiled in Forbes, The New York Times, to name but a few. When he isn’t blowing the minds of audiences around the world, Oz is an avid marathon and ultra marathon runner, having completed such grueling races as the Badwater 135 Miler, Hawaii Ironman World Championships, Western States 100 and Spartathlon. He takes great pride in his marathon PR of 2:23:52 and has won dozens of races throughout the country.