Gene Choe has been named to head of U.S. sales at Credit Suisse for AES, its electronic trading platform. Choe, who joined Credit Suisse in 2004, now oversees all domestic sales for equities, options and futures within AES. His responsibility also includes heading sales for Crossfinder, the firm’s successful crossing network. Choe, a former SEC attorney, co-founded MarketXT, an ECN that specialized in after-hours trading during the dot-com era. MarketXT, which was backed by several big brokerage houses–including Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Herzog Heine Geduld and Madoff Investments, was sold in 2000 to Tradescape, a direct-market-access broker composed of day traders. At Credit Suisse, Choe will continue to report to Manny Santayana, the firm’s global head of AES sales.
Pipeline Financial Group’s New York office added two pros to its sales team. Jim Fiesel joined Pipeline’s New York office as its head of global sales. A 25-year veteran, Fiesel arrived from Tradeweb, where he managed its global equities business. Kevin Morrison also joined Pipeline’s sales management team. Morrison, a 19-year veteran, is director of U.S. sales. He reports to Fiesel. Previously, Morrison worked for Piper Jaffray as head of electronic trading sales.
Todd Graber is now chief financial officer at Pink OTC Markets, the interdealer electronic quotation and trading system in the over-the-counter securities market. Graber was CFO for the previous five years at Quadriserv, which operates a securities lending market.
Debbie Mittelman joins UBS as global head of its direct execution product group, reporting to Charles Susi. There, she’ll oversee the department’s global strategy for trading products and supervise all direct execution product managers. A 25-year veteran, Mittelman previously worked at Lime Brokerage. She was a director of product for U.S. equities there, specializing in automated and high-volume electronic trading strategies. Mittelman will work from UBS’s offices in Stamford, Conn., and New York.
Bill Ahmuty joins Societe Generale as head of trading for exchange-traded funds. Ahmuty was previously at Newedge, where he held a similar position. At SocGen, Ahmuty reports to Jonathan Bensimon, head of equities and derivatives trading for the Americas.
Citi added three hires in electronic trading sales. Matt Scoble joins as a director. Scoble, a 16-year veteran, will focus on promoting Citi’s electronic trading products to its tier-one clients. Scoble spent four years at UBS, where he was head of the options distribution team. Jay Sarkar joins as a vice president to sell Citi’s electronic trading products to clients in Texas and New York. Sarkar, a 14-year veteran, previously spent five years at Liquidnet in corporate strategy. Scoble and Sarkar both report to Tim Reilly, who heads electronic trading sales in North America. In the options group, Rick Watkins joins as a vice president in a newly created position that will focus on introducing direct-market-access products for options to the buyside. Watkins, with more than 20 years’ experience, joins from Trinity Derivatives Group. He reports to Kevin Murphy, who oversees options at Citi.
