John Procopion has been promoted to head transaction services at Citi’s Lava Trading. Procopion, who’s been at Citi for nearly six years, was previously responsible for Lava’s sellside execution services business. That includes its LavaFlow ECN, where he is president; its smart order router, known as ColorBook; and its transaction analytics products. Prior to joining Citi, Procopion spent nearly nine years at INET ATS, where he headed sales and transactions. He replaces Shane Swanson, who joined the firm when Citi purchased market-making firm Automated Trading Desk in 2007. Procopion reports to Dan Keegan, who co-heads Citi’s electronic trading division.
Greg Ludvik joins FlexTrade Systems as a director to run ColorPalette OMS, an order management system the firm recently acquired. FlexTrade, a provider of multi-asset trading platforms, purchased ColorPalette from Citi’s LavaFlow subsidiary on Nov. 15 for an undisclosed amount. Ludvik is a 10-year veteran at Citi and was previously head of product management. At FlexTrade, he will also be responsible for new business development. He reports to president and CEO Vijay Kedia.
Jay Fraser joins Deutsche Bank as a managing director to head Autobahn’s trading and sales effort. Autobahn is the firm’s electronic distribution service, connecting the buyside to Deutsche Bank’s sales, trading and research analytics. The 19-year veteran most recently led institutional electronic and product development at Citadel and prior to that was head of international sales at agency broker Investment Technology Group. Fraser is based in New York and reports to Jose Marques, global head of equity electronic trading, and Brian Dugan, head of equity execution sales in the Americas.
ThinkEquity hired three senior sales traders: Peter Spadaccini, Shawn Diamond and Chris Weiss. Spadaccini, a veteran of more than 20 years, joins as a managing director from BMO Capital Markets, where he spent nine years. Diamond, a 10-year veteran, joins as a director from Ticonderoga Securities, where he spent just under two years. Weiss, a 12-year veteran, joins as a director to cover accounts primarily in New York and Connecticut. He previously spent seven years at Thomas Weisel Partners. They report to Phil Johnston, ThinkEquity’s head of equities.
Monika Brown joined Blaylock Robert Van, an Oakland, Calif.-based minority-owned investment firm, as senior vice president of international equity trading. Brown will be responsible for real-time equity execution in Japan and other Asian markets. She will also build Blaylock Robert Van’s European equity execution platform. Brown has more than 18 years of experience. Most recently, she founded Mercenary Trading, an affiliate of registered broker-dealer GBS Financial Corp., where she built an equity trading operation specializing in Asian markets on behalf of hedge funds and pension funds. Prior to the founding of her own firm, Brown worked with SAC Capital Advisors’ Canvas Capital unit, which managed an Asian-specific, event-driven portfolio.
Atrey Parikh joined Trading Cross Connects, a Jersey City, N.J.-based incubator of high-frequency algorithmic trading teams. He is responsible for the planning, design, implementation and support of the firm’s network infrastructure. Parikh will be based in Jersey City and will report to Gray Lorig, TXC’s chief information officer. Before joining TXC, Parikh was a senior network engineer at Morgan Stanley. There, he designed and deployed Morgan Stanley’s enterprise network services for the firm’s institutional securities, global wealth management and asset management groups.
