In other People Moves, Custom House Global Fund Services focuses on the U.S. market while the CME Group fills out its roster of managing directors.
Green Key Technologies Names Paul Christensen as CEO
Paul Christensen, CEO, Green Key Technologies
Voice-trading software systems vendor Green Key Technologies has appointed a former Goldman Sachs executive Paul Christensen, 44, to be its new CEO, tasked with taking the vendor to next level, officials say
Regarded as a leading expert on global market structure issues, Christensen most recently served as managing director and global co-head of Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investments team, officials say. He has been responsible for conceiving and executing a series of the industry’s leading ventures.
For Green Key, Christensen will operate out of the London office while managing the expansion of the vendor’s offices in Chicago, New York and Singapore, officials say.
Christensen has played a role in many of the leading market structure initiatives throughout the last 15 years, including Markit, TradeWeb, SwapClear, SwapsWire, the London Clearing House and Volbroker, officials say. He also served as Goldman’s co-chief operating officer of its Global Market Structure Group.
After joining Goldman Sachs as an executive director in 2006, Christensen was promoted to managing director in 2009, officials say. He led the firm’s market structure-related strategy and investment opportunities. Before Goldmans, Christensen served as global head of strategic investments for Deutsche Bank. He was co-chief operating officer (COO) at Volbroker, a pioneering multi-dealer electronic trading platforms, from 2000 to 2002. He began his career as a corporate attorney in London and Sydney.
Christensen has been a frequent guest lecturer on corporate venturing, entrepreneurship and market structure matters at the London Business School and Oxford University, officials say. He has served on the boards of directors of Tradeweb Markets, Source ETF Ltd., NYSE Liffe U.S., Markit Ltd., OTC Deriv Ltd., International Index Company Ltd. and Celoxica Ltd.
Anthony Tassone, Green Key co-founder and CEO since the vendor’s inception, will assume the new role of Chief Product Officer, responsible for product innovation and development, officials add.
“Every phone in the financial markets (and frankly beyond) should instead be a Green Key app; I believe it’s that powerful. The terrific functionality that we all take for granted on our smartphones has just not been available in the corporate setting until now,” Christensen says in a prepared statement.
“At the global investment banks where I worked, I couldn’t one-touch video conference my colleagues or address multiple counter-parties by tapping a button on a tablet. Through clever technology and a robust, reliable back end, Green Key makes this possible, along with unique offerings in transcription and voice-driven workflows to harness the power of big data,” Christensen says.
Green Key Technologies, based in Chicago, has offices in New York, London and Singapore. It offers software turret functionality, and encrypted global voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network and searchable text files. The vendor’s VoIP network now includes more than 250 of the world’s largest banks, brokerage firms and trading firms.
Custom House Global Fund Services Expands in U.S.
Custom House Global Fund Services, an independent hedge fund administration specialist, has expanded its sales and operations in North America, bringing onboard former investment banking executives.
Sebastien Sacre, managing director, Custom House Global Fund Services
Sebastien Sacre was appointed managing director of the Chicago office, the U.S. headquarters for Custom House, while John Lumley, who joined as the head of sales, Americas, will be based in New York, officials say.
Sacre joined Custom House from JPMorgan Chase, where he was a vice president and office lead in the private equity and real estate services group, managing the fund administration for private equity funds of several internal and external clients, officials say. Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase, Sacre served as a senior manager in the audit financial services industry group at Ernst &Young, working out of E&Y’s Luxembourg, Toronto and Chicago offices. He handl
John Lumley, head of sales, Americas, Custom House Global Fund Services
ed the audits of hedge funds, private equity funds and mutual funds.
Lumley has over 16 years’ experience in fund administration across operations, product and
business development and was previously product head for global fund services at JPMorgan, New York. In addition to positions at JPMorgan, he has experience on both alternative investments and investment banking with roles at GlobeOp Financial Services, Deutsche Bank, and Salomon Brothers, officials add.
Custom House Global Fund Services partners with hedge fund managers, start up managers, family offices and institutional managers, officials say. With over $20 billion in AUA, Custom House provides fund administration services to more than 200 managers and 500 investment funds. The firm has offices in Chicago, Dublin, Geneva, Guernsey, Hong Kong, London, Malta, New York, Rotterdam, Shenzhen, Singapore, Sofia and Sydney.
CME Group Promotes Four to MD Posts
CME Group, an operator of derivatives marketplaces, has bolstered its slate of managing directors with four promotions that took effect last month.
Officials have promoted:
- Peter Keavey, 47, to managing director and global head, crude and refined energy products. Based in New York, Keavey is responsible for managing and expanding CME Group’s risk management tools across its global crude and refined product suite, in addition to leading the U.S. natural gas and power businesses. “Prior to joining CME Group in 2013, Keavey served as portfolio manager at Graham Capital Management focusing on energy markets,” CME officials say. He also served as managing director and head of energy trading at Scotia Capital and held various commodity trading positions for Enron Corp., Societe Generale and Lehman Brothers.
- Tim McCourt, 37, to managing director and global head, equity products where he is responsible for leading the company’s global equity index product line. He is also based in New York and also serves on the S&P Dow Jones Indices U.S. Advisory Panel. “Before joining CME Group in 2013, McCourt worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was responsible for building and managing the Americas Index and Delta One trading book,” officials say. Prior to RBS, he held a senior trading role with JPMorgan in New York, spending 10 years with the equity derivatives group.
- Agha Mirza, 43, to the New York-based managing director and global head, interest rate products, responsible for driving the growth of CME Group’s global interest rate franchise. “Before joining the company in 2013, Mirza served as managing director and head of the Canadian Rates business at Citigroup, where he spent 17 years as an interest rates trader and trading manager,” CME Group officials say.
Adrienne Seaman, 45, to the London-based managing director and associate general counsel, international post, overseeing the development and execution of the company’s legal and regulatory strategy outside the U.S. “Prior to joining CME Group, Seaman was a partner at Taylor Wessing LLP with a particular emphasis on financial services and technology law,” officials say.
The CME Group has trading facilities in New York and Chicago, and through its London-based CME Europe derivatives exchange.
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