Opus, NEX Optimisation, investment bank Imperial Capital and voice platform vendor GreenKey also have People Moves announcements.
New EMEA Head for BNY Mellon Markets & New Corporate Trust Head for MENA
Dan Watkins, EMEA head, BNY Mellon Markets
BNY Mellon has appointed Dan Watkins as head of BNY Mellon Markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and appointed Paul Farrell as head of sales and relationship management for corporate trust in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Watkins, in his new role, will oversee the growth of BNY Mellon Markets as it “responds to increased client demand in the face of ongoing regulatory and market structure changes,” officials say. He succeeds Richard Gill, who announced his retirement earlier this year.
BNY Mellon officials add that Watkins has “significant industry experience, ranging from senior roles at JPMorgan and Jardine Fleming to co-founding investment management fintech, LatentZero.”
Based in London, Watkins will report to Michelle Neal, president of BNY Mellon Markets, and will regional accountability to Michael Cole-Fontayn, BNY Mellon’s EMEA Chairman, officials say.
For its MENA foray, Farrell will oversee BNY Mellon’s corporate trust relationships across offices in Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Cairo, Dubai, and Istanbul, officials say. “BNY Mellon provides a full spectrum of corporate trust solutions to its clients in the region, ranging from trustee and agent roles on traditional bond issuance to escrow agent and loan administration roles. Clients in the region include financial institutions, private sector bond issuers and sovereign entities,” officials add.
Farrell has worked for BNY Mellon’s Corporate Trust business for a decade, and he most recently headed the new business implementation team in Dublin, which is focused on structured finance and securitization, officials say. Farrell replaces Brian Hoey who has moved to BNY Mellon’s global client management team in London.
Farrell is based in Dubai and reports to Aidan Canny, managing director of regional markets and investment managers for corporate trust in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), officials say.
Opus Names SVP for Product, Marketing, and Alliances
Lee Kirschbaum, SVP, Opus
Opus, a compliance and risk management software-as-a-service technology specialist, reports the appointment of Lee Kirschbaum as senior vice president and head of product, marketing, and alliances.
Kirschbaum will be responsible for “accelerating the level of innovation in the company and delivering market-leading compliance and risk management solutions to clients and strategic partners,” according to an Opus statement.
In addition, Opus notes that he will be combining the company’s Hiperos and Alacra product lines, acquired in June 2014 and September 2015, respectively.
Kirschbaum, an industry veteran, was most recently president of Kroll Compliance and “worked on accelerating Kroll’s growth within the anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-bribery and corruption markets,” Opus says. “Previously, at Kroll, Kirschbaum held the role of senior vice president, operations and marketing, where he led business operations, marketing, and oversaw the Identity Theft Protection and Breach Notification business.” Before joining Kroll, he held senior leadership roles at Dun & Bradstreet, and notably helped launch and lead D&B’s enterprise risk and compliance solutions business.
Opus was co-founded by GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm, and Doug Bergeron, executive chairman of Opus, the company says.
NEX Appoints Chair of New Regulatory Think Tank
NEX Optimisation, a transaction-lifecycle specialist, reports that Kay Swinburne has been named chair of NEX Reg, its new think tank focused on regulatory
Kay Swinburne, chair, NEX Reg
and market structure issues.
Swinburne, a member of the European parliament, will “work with senior leaders from across NEX Group to publish regular white papers and host events for the wider market to debate and illuminate key issues,” according to a statement, which notes also that the NEX Reg think tank will “identify emerging issues, carefully examine the implications with market participants and generate discourse between industry and regulators.”
Swinburne pursued a career in investment banking and consulting before being elected Conservative member of the European parliament for Wales in June 2009, NEX says, and was appointed to the parliament’s economics and monetary affairs committee.
Imperial Capital Has New Head of Leveraged Finance
Imperial Capital, LLC, an investment bank, reports that New York-based William Wilson has joined the firm as managing director, head of leveraged finance in the investment banking group.
Wilson, a leveraged-finance veteran, joins from Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., where was a managing director, co-heading the debt capital markets group, according to an Imperial statement, which notes that, while there, he was responsible for a range of capital markets activities, including “managing a team of professionals who structured and distributed private loans and bonds and directly led the origination efforts for the Energy, Retail and Consumer Products, Gaming, Shipping and Specialty Finance sectors. Prior to Stifel, he was a Managing Director in the Capital Markets Group at CRT Capital LLC.”
GreenKey Taps FinTech Veteran to be CEO
Nader Shwayhat, CEO, GreenKey
GreenKey, creator of a voice platform for financial market participants, has recently appointed fintech veteran Nader Shwayhat, 39, as its new CEO with a remit to push growth and execution plans, officials say. Based in New York, Shwayhat has been working with GreenKey as a strategic advisor since November.
Shwayhat takes the top management post at GreenKey after 15 years of experience in building financial technology businesses based on real-time communication, trading workflows and big-data analytics, officials say.
Earlier in his career, Shwayhat co-founded Pivot, Inc., an instant messaging startup for financial markets, which eventually was sold to CME Group, a company of derivatives trading venues and systems. While at CME Group, Shwayhat co-founded CME Direct, an internal, acquisition-driven startup that offers a suite of technology tools to trading customers, officials say.
Most recently, Shwayhat served as global head of sales and business development for Novus Partners, a portfolio intelligence company targeting institutional investors and asset managers that want to optimize performance through big data and analytics, officials say.
In addition, Shwayhat holds several patents on chat-based trading technologies, and has worked in real-time communications integration with the trading and compliance workflows of front-, middle- and back-office professionals.
“His domain expertise and executive leadership within capital markets position him perfectly to lead our firm through our next chapter of exciting growth and execution,” says Anthony Tassone, GreenKey founder and chief product officer, in a prepared statement.
Shwayhat points out that he has had a role in the evolution of unified communications over the last decade. “It’s clear that advanced voice interfaces and [artificial intelligence]-driven speech recognition represent the next wave of innovation on trading floors,” Shwayhat says in a statement. “GreenKey is challenging the entire notion of financial phone, turret and transcription services, and I’m thrilled to help bring our disruptive products to the entire industry.”
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