WHO’S WHO
By Gordon Platt
Key players in foreign exchange.
Jamie Thorsen
Executive managing director
BMO Capital Markets
Jamie Thorsen heads global foreign exchange operations in Canada, the US and Europe for BMO Capital Markets and oversees the firm’s activities in China. Thorsen is a member of the foreign exchange committees sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank of Canada.
Firas Askari
Managing director, foreign exchange trading
BMO Capital Markets
Firas Askari is responsible for Canadian dollar trading globally at BMO Capital Markets and heads the firm’s foreign exchange sales and trading group in London. He is a past president of the Financial Markets Association of Canada and has served on the Bank of Canada’s FX Committee. Askari joined BMO in 1996 and assumed his current position in 2004.
Edward McGann
Managing director, FX fund services
BNY Mellon
Edward McGann is managing director of fund services for FX sales in BNY Mellon’s New York office. He and John Murray, managing director of FX sales in the bank’s London branch, forged a global partnership to create a new business, Currency Hedge Administration, from e-commerce components previously developed for FX by BNY Mellon Global Markets. The hedging program passively supports investors with multicurrency portfolios to hedge currency risk and create multiple share classes for their mixed-currency holdings.
John Murray
Managing director, FX sales
BNY Mellon
John Murray is managing director of FX sales in BNY Mellon’s London branch. He and Edward McGann created Currency Hedge Administration using the bank’s proprietary Web-based technology known as iHedge. Unlike other currency-management programs that seek to create excess returns, Currency Hedge Administration is a risk mitigation program that uses clients’ own rules to administer the hedging program.
José Augusto Durand
Director, client desk and foreign exchange desk
Banco Itaú BBA
José Augusto Durand is director of the client desk and foreign exchange desk of Banco Itaú BBA, which provides corporate, treasury, international and investment banking services in Brazil. He joined Banco Itaú in 1996 and previously was senior trader for the client desk at Lloyds Bank. He holds an MBA in finance from Brazil’s IBMEC business school.
Eric Bommensath
Managing director, head of fixed income, currencies and commodities, and head of trading, EMEA
Barclays Capital
Eric Bommensath is head of fixed income, currencies and commodities, and head of trading in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at Barclays Capital. He joined the bank in London in 1997 as head of derivatives, Europe. A French national, Bommensath studied science at École Polytechnique in Paris and engineering at École Ponts et Chaussées.
Marc Chandler
Global head of currency strategy
Brown Brothers Harriman
Marc Chandler joined Brown Brothers Harriman in 2005 as global head of currency strategy. Previously, he was the chief currency strategist for HSBC Bank USA and Mellon Bank. Chandler is an associate professor at New York University, where he teaches classes in international political economy.
Derek Sammann
Managing director, financial products and services
CME Group
Derek Sammann is managing director, financial products and services, at CME Group, where he is responsible for the interest rate, equity and FX product lines. He previously served as managing director, global head of FX products, since joining CME in 2006. Before that, he was managing director, global head of FX options and structured products, at Calyon Corporate and Investment Bank, based in London.
Anil Prasad
Global head of FX and EM local markets
Citi
Anil Prasad is global head of FX and EM local markets at Citi, based in London. He began his career with Citibank India in 1986 and relocated to New York in 1988 to work on the currency and metals options desk. In 1992, he was named head of the options business. Prasad moved to London to head Citi’s interest-rate options business in 1996. He also has worked in proprietary trading at Natwest Capital Markets beginning in 1997. Prasad rejoined Citi in 2000 as regional head of CEEMEA (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) trading and was named head of sales and trading for the region in 2003.
Jeff Feig
Managing director and global head of G-10 FX
Citi
Jeff Feig is responsible for all foreign exchange sales and trading in the G-10 developed markets at Citi. He joined the bank in 1989 as an associate on the FX desk in Toronto and has held several FX management positions in North America and Europe. He was named to his current position in 2004. Feig is the current chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s FX Committee and also serves on the Bank of Canada’s FX Committee. He was on the board of electronic broker EBS until its sale in 2007 to ICAP.
Peter Soh
Managing director and head of foreign exchange/commodities
DBS
Since 1996, when he was appointed head of foreign exchange/commodities at DBS, Peter Soh has been instrumental in building a world-class foreign exchange team with a strong regional presence in Asian currency FX in both deliverable FX in various countries in Asia and NDFs business in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Zar Amrolia
Global head of foreign exchange
Deutsche Bank
Zar Amrolia is global head of foreign exchange in the global markets division of Deutsche Bank, based in London. Deutsche Bank is the leading provider of FX services to hedge funds and large corporations globally. Amrolia was named global head of foreign exchange in 2006. He joined Deutsche Bank in 1995 from Credit Suisse First Boston. From 2000 until 2004, he was co-head of foreign exchange at Goldman Sachs.
Stergios Pantostis
Co-head, global markets trading
Eurobank EFG
Stergios Pantostis co-heads the global markets trading division at Eurobank EFG, based in Athens. In FX, his group operates in the spot and derivatives markets, with a main emphasis on Southeastern and Central Europe. Pantostis joined the group in 2002 and headed the derivatives business until he was named to his current position in 2009.
Wolfgang J. Koester
CEO
Fireapps
Wolfgang Koester is CEO of Fireapps, developer of on-demand foreign exchange exposure management software. Prior to forming Scottsdale, Arizona-based Fireapps, Koester worked for more than 13 years at Germany-based GFTA Trendanalysen, a quantitative currency manager. He was president of GFTA from 1995 to 2000.
David Gilmore
Partner and economist
Foreign Exchange Analytics
David Gilmore is responsible for managing Foreign Exchange Analytics’ fundamental coverage. Prior to founding the Essex, Connecticut-based firm in 1994, he spent seven years providing online commentary in New York and London with MCM CurrencyWatch and MMS International.
Phil Weisberg
CEO
FXall
Phil Weisberg, CEO of FXall, has led the company since it was formed in 2001. FXall provides automated trading and workflow solutions for FX and treasury operations. FXall acquired LavaFX earlier this year from Citi. More than 1,000 institutions have joined the multibank portal for FX trading. Before joining FXall, Weisberg was a managing director at LabMorgan, JPMorgan Chase’s eFinance incubator.
Drew Niv
CEO
FXCM
Drew Niv, CEO of FXCM, co-founded the foreign exchange brokerage in 1999. Since then, FXCM has become one of the largest firms in online retail foreign exchange trading, with 150,000 accounts in 200 countries. Prior to founding FXCM, Niv was director of marketing at MG Financial.
John R. Taylor
Chairman, CEO and chief investment officer
FX Concepts
John Taylor founded FX Concepts, a New York-based investment management company for foreign exchange assets, including currency overlays, in 1981. He specializes in the analysis of cyclicality of FX and interest rate markets. Taylor developed some of the first computer models to assist multinational corporations in managing foreign exchange risk.
Mark Galant
Founder and chairman
GAIN Capital
Mark Galant founded GAIN Capital in 1999 and the firm has grown into one of the largest online foreign exchange companies. GAIN Capital operates the Forex.com system, which has clients in 140 countries. Prior to forming the company, Galant helped build FNX into a leading provider of trading and risk-management systems. Before that, he was global head of foreign exchange options trading at Credit Suisse. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Frederic Boillereau
Global head of foreign exchange and metals
HSBC
Frederic Boillereau was named global head of foreign exchange and metals in March 2009, when HSBC integrated foreign exchange spot, forward and options trading, as well as the metals business, into a single global product offering. Based in London, Boillereau joined the bank’s global markets division in 1998. Since May 2008, he has been heading HSBC’s metals business.
Mark Johnson
Managing director, global head of foreign exchange cash trading
HSBC
Mark Johnson is global head of foreign exchange cash trading at HSBC, based in London. He was founding managing partner and chief investment officer at Johnson Stewart Partners. Previously, he was a managing director at Deutsche Bank.
John Nixon
Executive director, and CEO of ICAP electronic broking
ICAP North America
John Nixon was named an executive director of ICAP North America in May 2008. ICAP became the leading broker in the spot FX market with its purchase of the EBS platform in 2006. Nixon also is CEO of ICAP Electronic Broking and is responsible for strategic acquisitions as well as ICAP’s information business. He is a member of the FX Committee sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
David Rutter
Deputy CEO of ICAP electronic broking
ICAP
David Rutter is deputy chief executive of ICAP Electronic Broking. Prior to joining ICAP in 2003, he was a significant shareholder in Prebon. Rutter served in various capacities at Prebon, beginning in 1988. He was global chief executive of Prebon Energy and managing director of the Americas for Prebon Yamane.
Todd Crosland
Chairman and president
Interbank FX
Todd Crosland, chairman and president of InterbankFX, founded the off-exchange broker in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2001. With customers in 140 countries, Interbank FX offers individual traders, fund managers and institutional customers technology to trade spot foreign exchange online and via wireless devices. The company’s Meta Trader 4 platform supports trading volume in excess of $80 billion a month.
Thanos Papasavvas
Head of currency management and portfolio manage r
Investec Asset Management
Thanos Papasavvas is head of currency management at Investec Asset Management, which manages approximately $9.8 billion of currency assets for global investors. Previously, Papasavvas was a director and head of currency management for Credit Suisse Asset Management. He joined CSFB’s fixed-income department in 1994 after two years as an economist for the UK Government Economics Service.
Joaquim Pires
Managing director and head of foreign exchange
Millennium bcp
Joaquim Pires is head of foreign exchange at Portugal-based Millennium bcp. He is responsible for FX trading and sales, covering a wide range of currencies and structured products. Pires joined the bank in 1991 from Banco Português do Atlântico, where he started his career in financial markets in 1986.
Mammen Varkey
Assistant general manager, treasury, and head of FX trading
National Bank of Kuwait
Mammen Varkey is an assistant general manager and head of FX trading at the National Bank of Kuwait. He began his career at NBK and has been the chief dealer in foreign exchange since 1989. He is an active trader in the FX markets and a market maker in all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) currencies.
David Gracey
Head of foreign exchange trading
Nedbank Capital
David Gracey is head of foreign exchange trading at South Africa-based Nedbank Capital, where he is the market maker on the spot FX desk in Johannesburg. He has long experience in the region, having traded in various South African markets for 23 years.
Robert Sinche
Managing director, global head of FX strategy
RBS Securities
Robert Sinche is global head of FX strategy at RBS Securities, based in Stamford, Connecticut. He was chief strategist for Lily Pond Capital Management in New York. Before that, he was head of strategy for global rates, currencies and commodities at Bank of America. RBS Securities is a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland.
Joachim Alpen
Head of trading and capital markets
SEB
Joachim Alpen is head of trading and capital markets at Stockholm-based SEB, a position he assumed on November 1, 2010. He was head of foreign exchange at SEB, which has FX trading desks in 16 countries. He joined SEB a decade ago as an emerging markets trader and has held numerous positions, including head of trading in New York for three years. Previously, he worked at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. Alpen has a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University, based in Maryland.
Barry Wainstein
Vice chairman, deputy head of global capital markets, global head of foreign exchange and precious and base metals
Scotia Capital
Barry Wainstein is vice chairman and deputy head of global capital markets at Scotia Capital and global head of both the foreign exchange and metals (ScotiaMocatta) business lines. Wainstein is a member of the Canadian Foreign Exchange Committee and the European Central Bank’s Foreign Exchange Contact Group. He holds BS and MBA degrees from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Richard Leighton
Global head of foreign exchange
Standard Chartered Bank
Richard Leighton is global head of foreign exchange at Standard Chartered Bank, based in London. He is responsible for global FX and FX options products, as well as fixed income in Europe. Before joining the bank in 2003, he worked in the currency and commodities areas at JPMorgan Chase and Midland Bank/HSBC.
richard.leighton@standardchartered.com
Anthony C. Bisegna
Senior managing director and global head of FX trading
State Street Global Markets
Anthony Bisegna is responsible for managing all currency trading activities worldwide for State Street Global Markets, including spot transactions, forwards, emerging markets and options. He is a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and holds a CFA designation.
Boris Somorovsky
Head of trading department
Tatra Banka
Boris Somorovsky joined Slovakia-based Tatra Banka in 1999 as a foreign exchange trader. He was named a senior trader in 2004 and became head of the trading department last year. The bank is a member of Austria-based Raiffeisen International.
boris_somorovsky@tatrabanka.sk
Fabian Shey
Managing director and global head of fixed-income, currencies and commodities (FICC) distribution
UBS Investment Bank
Fabian Shey is managing director and global head of fixed-income, currencies and commodities distribution at UBS Investment Bank. He has led various areas within FX at UBS since 2000. Prior to that, Shey was global head of FX exotic options at SBC Warburg, which later became UBS Warburg. He is a member of the FX Committee sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Simon Wilson-Taylor
Managing director and global head of FICC e-commerce
UBS Investment Bank
Simon Wilson-Taylor joined UBS Investment Bank as a managing director and global head of FICC e-commerce in September 2009. He left State Street Global Markets in January 2009 to found Molten Markets, an online trading platform, where he was CEO. At State Street, Wilson-Taylor was executive vice president and head of Global Link.
Nick Crawford
Global head of FX
UniCredit
Nick Crawford was named global head of FX at UniCredit in June 2009 and is based in London. He previously was head of interest rates and foreign exchange for North America, as well as FX derivatives trading. Before joining UniCredit, Crawford was global co-head of FX trading at Merrill Lynch in New York.
Tony White
Managing director-banking
Wall Street Systems
Tony White is managing director of banking at Wall Street Systems, with additional responsibilities for marketing and product management for Wallstreet FX, an integrated platform to support high-volume trade processing. White also was instrumental in the creation of Wallstreet ESN, an electronic settlement network for the capital markets. Wallstreet estimates that more than 25% of the world’s daily FX transactions flow through systems it provides to banks.
