OpenLink Hires Ex-President of SunGard Global Services
OpenLink Financial, a trading and risk management software vendor, has appointed the former president of SunGard Global Services for the Americas Doug Wendler to be executive vice president (EVP), America’s Energy, effective as of July 30, officials say. Wendler left the SunGard post last year and was a partner at PositionPoint until his move to OpenLink.
Doug Wendler,
EVP of America’s Energy,
OpenLink
Before Wendler, John D’Aleo, chief operating officer (COO), America’s financials and corporations, held the EVP post at OpenLink; D’Aleo will be focusing on the finance and commodities side of OpenLink’s business. Wendler will drive the company’s energy trading and risk management (ETRM) business for power, gas and crude oil trading in the Americas from OpenLink’s Houston, Texas office. Both D’Aleo and Wendler report to OpenLink’s CEO Kevin Hesselbirg.
As EVP of energy for the Americas, Wendler plans to expand OpenLink’s energy solutions in North and South America, with a focus on Brazil, Chile and Argentina. “We see that whole landscape as a ripe opportunity for us for energy and commodities,” he says.
Wendler says his main goal is to focus on growth. “I have to figure out how to take our existing assets and get the most out of them that we can,” he says. “And two, I have to figure out what assets we can add to that equation whether they are home grown, acquired or whatever the case may be—to actually bring more products and services to our existing markets. In a nutshell, I’m focused on doubling our energy business over the next three to five years.”
Wendler will also be involved in helping OpenLink incorporate the risk management offerings of CubeLogic, which OpenLink acquired this year. CubeLogic provides solutions for the finance and commodities sectors. “We’re looking at how to bolt that into our existing offerings,” he says. “We’ve also got some gaps in the value chain that we’d like to fill over time.”
Wendler has more than 20 years of experience with energy software and services— most recently with SunGard.
“SunGard has gone through a lot of changes over the last five to seven years,” Wendler explains. His time with SunGard began in 2002 when the software and services giant bought EnForm Technology, a company that Wendler co-founded. The energy trading consulting company that specialized in large-scale custom development of commodity trading and risk management software solutions became part of SunGard Consulting Services.
The EnForm business was profitably broadened to encompass financial services and, as a result, Wendler’s career path at SunGard was leaning toward financial services, he says. “I really wanted to get back to my energy roots and [OpenLink] was an opportunity to do that,” Wendler says.
BNY Mellon Adds Investment Strategy Head for Asia-Pacific
Earlier this month, investment management services provider BNY Mellon appointed Paul Schulte to the newly created position of head of investment strategy for the Asia-Pacific region (APAC), officials say.
Schulte has previous buy- and sell-side experience in the region as he most recently served as the global head of financial strategy for China Construction Bank International Securities, where he created the Greater China research platform. Schulte also served as managing director and head of multi-strategy for Asia banks’ research at Lehman Brothers.
In his new position, Schulte will be responsible for researching investment trends and economic activity in the region, specifically in Japan and Korea.
“Schulte will focus on developing an APAC investment and market knowledge platform that will help capture and communicate the APAC investment opinion and analysis from across the firm’s investment management boutiques, and support the firm’s global thinking,” say officials in a prepared statement.
Schulte will be based in Hong Kong and will be reporting to both Alan Harden, CEO for BNY Mellon’s Asia-Pacific investment management business and Jack Malvey, chief global market strategist for investment management. With this position, Schulte will be joining BNY Mellon’s APAC investment management executive committee and BNY Mellon’s APAC operating committee.
ConvergEx Group Appoints General Counsel from Société Générale
Steven P. Heineman,
general counsel,
ConvergEx
ConvergEx Group, a software and services vendor focused on asset management, announced the appointment of Steven P. Heineman as general counsel and member of the company’s executive committee. Heineman, who joined earlier this month, will be reporting to Charles Rappold, vice chairman and chief operating officer (COO) for ConvergEx.
Before joining ConvergEx, Heineman served as general counsel in the Americas for Société Générale, where he was responsible for overseeing the bank’s financing, derivatives, and investment banking activities, among others. Heineman also served as director of litigation and regulatory affairs for the bank’s U.S. business lines.
CLS Picks Industry Vet for CEO
David Puth,
CEO,
CLS Group
Industry veteran David Puth will be the next CEO of CLS Group (CLS), the settlement utility for foreign exchange (FX) markets, and the next CEO of CLS Bank International, a subsidiary of CLS Group, officials say.
Puth’s 30-year career includes 19 years at J.P. Morgan where he served in a variety of senior global leadership roles, including oversight of the firm’s FX, interest rate derivatives, commodities, and emerging markets businesses. He also served as a member of JPMorgan Chase’s executive committee. After leaving J.P. Morgan in 2007, Puth founded the Eriska Group, a New York-based risk management consulting firm.
Most recently, Puth worked at State Street, where he served as executive vice president and head of global markets. At State Street, he was responsible for sales, trading, and investment research across multiple asset classes, including FX, and for Currenex, the firm’s electronic FX brokerage business. He also served on State Street’s management committee.
Gerard Hartsink, CLS’ interim executive chairman, has been serving as president of CLS since the departure of Alan Bozian this past April. Hartsink will support Puth during a brief transitional period before returning to his position as non-executive chairman, officials say.
In his new position, Puth, who takes over on August 21, will be responsible for supporting daily operations and management at the utility. CLS settles payment instructions relating to underlying FX transactions in 17 major currencies and certain other transactions that result in one-way payments in a subset of those currencies.
“Joining CLS is a natural next step for me,” says Puth in a prepared statement. “I am eager to join my CLS colleagues in delivering the next stage of CLS’ strategy, during one of the most critical times for financial markets.”
In addition to CLS Bank International, the other subsidiaries of CLS Group Holdings, which is owned by major FX banks, are CLS Services Ltd. and CLS Aggregation Services.
—Alexa Mehraban
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