Obituary
FIA regrets to report that Dan Mandell, aged 49, died unexpectedly on 18 October. Mandell was vice president of sales and strategic partnerships at financial technology firm Verascore. Before that, he was vice president, head of strategy and sales for Baton Systems, and vice president in the principal strategic investments group at Goldman Sachs.
People news
Mark Steward is stepping down as the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight after seven years with the regulator. He will leave in early 2023, according to an FCA statement. Steward joined in 2015 from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, where he was a member of the SFC board for nine years and executive director of enforcement. Before joining the SFC, he was deputy executive director, enforcement with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Samantha Page has joined Euronext in London as head of market structure. She previously worked at the Financial Conduct Authority in wholesale banking supervision for seven years. The move is a key appointment for Euronext, which recently announced its ambition to expand its clearing business and further build its market infrastructure in Europe. Before joining the FCA, Page was a sales director, futures and OTC derivatives clearing at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Previously, she worked in clearing at RBS, as a strategic sales director at CME Group and spent four years at Liffe from 2005 to 2009, after it was acquired by Euronext in 2002 and during Euronext’s merger with the New York Stock Exchange in 2007.
Cboe Global Markets has appointed Iouri Saroukhanov as its new head of European derivatives, replacing Ade Cordell who was named in July the group's president for Asia Pacific. Saroukhanov reports directly to Natan Tiefenbrun, president of Cboe Europe. He joins from Bloomberg, where he served as an equity derivatives specialist over the last six months. Prior to Bloomberg, Saroukhanov spent nearly 17 years at Liquid Capital Group, most recently as senior trader on the Euro STOXX 50 derivatives desk.
Amy Peters has joined the Chicago office of Phillip Capital, the Singapore-based broker and clearing firm, as vice president of execution services. She previously worked at ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago as a vice president in global execution services.
Marex has hired Mark Arasaratnam and Ilan Solot as co-heads of digital assets. Arasaratnam brings over 17 years of experience “gained in FX trading, global macro, B2B and B2C sectors,” Marex says. Solot was previously a partner for research/strategy in digital assets at Tagus Capital and was a market strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. He also worked at the International Monetary Fund providing market monitoring and briefings on financial stability risks to IMF officials, central banks and governments.
Former bank lobbyist and civil servant Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani has been appointed chair of France’s financial regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers. She was previously general secretary at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance and was the chief executive of the French Banking Federation, a lobbying group, from 2014 to 2019. From 2007 to 2010 she was deputy chief executive of Crédit Agricole bank. Barbat-Layani succeeds Robert Ophèle, whose term of office came to an end in July. She is the first woman to hold the top position at the regulator.
FIA Tech, a technology provider for the futures industry, has appointed Debby Planer as vice president, head of connectivity based in New York. She reports to chief technology officer Yossi Leon. Planer joins from Osttra, a joint venture owned by CME Group and S&P Global, where she was global head of FX professional services. Prior to this, she led the New York client services team at Traiana.
Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto has joined crypto exchange EDX Markets as chief strategy officer. She was previously CEO of Atomyze LLC, a digital assets platform for tokenizing commodities. Prior to joining Atomyze, she served as the managing director of operations at Gemini, where she was responsible for the development and execution of business strategy for the exchange and custody businesses. She has also held several leadership roles, including chief operating officer at Nasdaq’s International Securities Exchange.
BlueCrest Capital Management has appointed Jay Radia in London as commodities COO. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs in listed commodities sales trading and derivatives sales trading.
BNP Paribas has hired Kevin Breen to work in its listed derivatives execution sales team, based in London. Breen joins from RBC Capital Markets where he worked in electronic execution sales. Prior to that he worked in sales at JP Morgan and was a sales trader, equity futures and options at Morgan Stanley.
Amsterdam-based Barak Capital Market Making, part of Israel’s Barak Capital, has hired Elian Matthijssen for business development. Matthijssen was previously a senior relationship manager at ABN AMRO Clearing Bank, and before that was the US head of relationship management at ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago.
Matthew Kulkin, a former division director at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has joined law firm WilmerHale as a partner to lead its futures and derivatives practice. Kulkin joins from Steptoe and Johnson, where he was a partner and co-chaired the financial services practice group. Kulkin was director of the CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight from 2017 to 2019.
Regulatory technology firm Kaizen Reporting has appointed Matthew Vincent as a managing director. Vincent previously worked at UnaVista, the regulatory reporting platform owned by the London Stock Exchange Group, where he was director of regulatory reporting strategy. Before that, he was head of MiFID regulatory reporting at Credit Suisse. He has also worked at Barclays in its operational compliance team and held similar roles at Citi and Deutsche Bank.
Post-trade processing company Baton Systems has appointed Alistair Griffiths as director of EMEA sales, based in London. He reports to Alex Knight, Baton’s global head of sales. Griffiths joins from FIS Global where he was senior sales executive, post-trade solutions for the UK, Channel Islands and the Netherlands. Prior to that, he was vice president, relationship manager at BNY Mellon. He has also worked at BlackRock and Man Financial.
