FIA has announced that its longtime chief commercial officer, Emma Davey, will step down at the end of the year. Since taking on her position in 2016 following the merger of FIA and the London-based Futures and Options Association, Davey has overseen the expansion of FIA’s conferences and events business while leading the organization’s marketing, branding, communications and membership strategy. Davey has been critical to FIA’s global growth as well as its increased charitable efforts, including her stewardship of the Futures for Kids charity. FIA has opened an application process for filling the role.
Clear Street, a prime brokerage founded in 2018, has appointed Ed Tilly as its CEO, following Chris Pento’s decision to step down at the end of 2024. In July, Tilly, the former CEO of Cboe Global Markets, became president of Clear Street to work alongside Pento to lead the brokerage-service provider through the next phase of its growth. Pento co-founded the New York-based firm with Uriel Cohen and Sachin Kumar. Pento is stepping down at the end of the year to assume an executive and partner role at White Bay, the family office of co-founder Cohen. He will remain on the board of directors of Clear Street.
Gordon Ball has left his role as head of futures electronic execution at Citi to join the academic world as a physics and science teacher. Ball joined Citi in 2018 from Goldman Sachs where he worked for 18 years in various senior roles including head of listed derivatives execution and clearing product development and as an electronic execution strategist. He started his career at Salomon Brothers, which became part of Citigroup, before moving to Goldman.
Steve Hunt has joined DRW Trading in Chicago as chief technology officer. Hunt was previously vice president of engineering at crypto exchange Kraken. Before that he spent more than a decade at Jump Trading as CTO. He joined the proprietary trading firm in 2007 from Goldman Sachs where he was a vice president, technology.
Priyanka Jain has joined CME Group as director of equity and crypto products. She is based in New York and reports to Giovanni Vicioso, global head of crypto derivatives products. Jain previously worked as the US digital assets strategy lead at BGC Partners, where she launched the digital assets desk.
Jim Sullivan has joined ABN AMRO Clearing USA as vice president of business development working with producers, processors, traders, consumers and funds. Sullivan previously worked at CME Group, most recently as director, commodity research and product development.
Broadridge Financial Solutions has appointed Simon Robertshaw as chief technology officer for front-office trading capabilities. Based in London, Robertshaw will oversee front-office trading capabilities across the organization. He joins from The Bank of London where he was chief operating officer. Over the course of his career, he has held leadership roles at UBS, Wachovia Bank, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
Oil trading firm Gunvor Group has hired Gary Pedersen as head of US trading to replace David Garza after he retires later this year. Pedersen previously led a team of refined-products traders at hedge fund Millennium Management and worked for Northville and Koch Supply & Trading. Garza has led Gunvor USA since its startup in 2017, helping expand it to more than 120 employees in Houston; Stamford, Connecticut; and Calgary, Canada. He previously worked at Tesoro and spent more than 20 years in financial and trading positions at BP.
R.J. O’Brien & Associates has promoted Amber Wright, managing director and global head of fixed income, to the additional role of head of EMEA sales. Wright is based in Dubai after working for several years in RJO’s London office and reports to Daniel Staniford, RJO president and chief sales officer. Before joining RJO in 2019, Wright spent two years at Capula Investment Management, a fixed income specialist hedge fund she joined to establish a new systematic trading team. She began her career at Barclays Investment Bank as a futures and options broker.
Mike Gatny has been promoted to president and chief operating officer of trading technology company Connamara Systems. He joined Connamara as a software engineer in 2006 and was promoted to chief operating officer in 2022. In his new role, Gatny will continue to work closely with co-founder and CEO Jim Downs.
The Bank of England has appointed three new members to its enforcement decision-making committee, which settles contested cases in areas in which the Bank has enforcement powers (prudential regulation, financial market infrastructures, resolution and note issuances). They are barrister Harry Matovu, solicitor Clare Moulder and chartered accountant Pauline Wallace. Each will serve for an initial five-year term. Their appointments bring the committee to nine members.
David Best has left UBS in London, where he was executive director, agency trading initiative manager, responsible for driving forward the global exchange-traded derivatives and EMEA equities execution programs.
