Baton Systems, a provider of post-trade solutions for capital markets, named J. Christopher “Chris” Giancarlo, former Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as Senior Advisor. Giancarlo will play a key role in supporting Baton’s mission to transform the post-trade payments and settlements ecosystem. He served as 13th Chairman of the CFTC, from 2014 until 2019.
Capitolis, provider of a SaaS platform that drives financial resource optimization for capital markets, appointed Jen Vanderwall, former people and talent leader at Bridgewater Associates, as Chief People and Culture Officer. Vanderwall will be tasked with supporting Capitolis’ continued growth, emphasizing a dynamic culture and furthering Capitolis’ position as a leading employer. Prior to Capitolis, Jen held leadership positions in HR and talent at Bridgewater Associates, where she was a member of the firm’s core management team and partnered with the CEO and board to oversee all people functions.
TORA, provider of a cloud-based order and execution management system and portfolio management system, appointed Mark Moran as Sales Director. Moran will work alongside Tom Mollooly to grow TORA’s PMS, OMS and EMS products to US buy side and sell side firms. Moran will report to TORA managing director Chris Jenkins. Moran started his career on the mutual fund order desk at AXA Advisors and then moved into SAAS solutions at SS&C Advent where he focused on their top trading and portfolio management clients.
Pragma, which develops algorithmic trading and technology tools for equities and FX trading, appointed Steve Cooper as CTO. He joins from AWS and has more than 20 years of experience in capital markets and technology. He will be based in New York. Prior to AWS, Steve led Global Front Office Technology for Liquidnet, where he drove several important initiatives including the creation of a low-latency, algorithmic trading platform.
BMLL, an independent provider of harmonised, historical data and analytics, hired Masami Johnstone joined as Senior Client Advisor and Simon Ellis as Head of Partnerships and Strategic Alliances. Johnstone will focus on developing senior relationships on the buyside and sellside. She joins BMLL from CLS, where she was Managing Director of Information Services, responsible for the data business. Prior to CLS, Masami served as Head of Buy-Side Sales at Euronext, in charge of advanced data sales and development. Ellis will be responsible for continuing the development of the wider BMLL ecosystem. A senior management consultant with more than two decades’ global experience in business development and data management strategy across fintech and capital markets, Ellis has served in various sales and business development roles at Multex (Thomson Reuters), Radianz (now BT), Transaction Network Services and Thomson Financial.
CloudMargin, which provides a cloud-native collateral and margin management solution, appointed Helen Nicol as Senior Vice President, Head of Product. Nicol has more than 20 years of experience in collateral management, financial markets and law, including senior positions at two global banks. Nicol joins CloudMargin after serving for over 14 years as Global Product Director for Lombard Risk, which was acquired by VERMEG in 2018.State Street Corp, appointed Renee LaRoche-Morris as chief of staff to the chief operating officer and head of chief administration officer shared services. In this role LaRoche-Morris will be responsible for leadership oversight for the COO and centralized CAO organization working across multiple business areas. LaRoche-Morris joins from BNY Mellon where she held multiple leadership positions across the custody, finance, and investment management groups.
