In other People Moves, the SEC announces an exit and a hiring, Cboe Global Markets revamps its boards, and AxiomSL has a new chief client officer.
Wells Fargo to Move 1,200 Into London HQ
Wells Fargo & Co. recently completed its purchase of 33 King William Street (formerly known as 33 Central) in the City of London from the international real estate developer HB Reavis, bank officials say.
The office development effort, announced in July 2016, marks the “first international real estate purchase outside of the United States for Wells Fargo, and it will serve as the company’s London headquarters,” according to Wells Fargo.
Construction is complete on the new building and Wells Fargo will be moving approximately 1,200 employees to the 33 King William Street site from four other locations in the city of London during the fourth quarter of 2018, officials say.
The employee relocation “will take place in tranches; and to commemorate the company’s rich history, the new building will house a Wells Fargo stagecoach, which will be stationed in the reception area,” according to Wells Fargo.
The building has been designed by British architecture practice John Robertson Architects, which worked with HB Reavis’ in-house design and technical teams.
An international, real estate developer founded in 1993 in Bratislava, Slovakia, HB Reavis operates in the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and in Turkey. The new London headquarters will feature a rooftop garden, designed by Townshend Landscape Architects, that will house more than 40 different species of wild plants and flowers native to Britain.
SEC’s Enforcement Division Associate Director to Leave
Gerald W. Hodgkins, departing A.D., division of enforcement, SEC
The SEC reports that Gerald W. Hodgkins, an associate director of the division of enforcement, is leaving the agency for private practice.
During his two-decades tenure, Hodgkins has overseen “more than 100 enforcement actions covering the full breadth of the agency’s jurisdiction, including issuer reporting and disclosure fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and misconduct by entities regulated by the agency,” the SEC says.
Hodgkins is also a founding member of the SEC’s claims review staff, which “makes recommendations to the Commission concerning when and how much to award whistleblowers under the SEC’s whistleblower program,” the commission adds, noting that he also has been a member of the SEC’s national labor management forum.
He joined the SEC in 1997, becoming a branch chief in 1999, an assistant director in 2007, and an associate director in 2010, per the SEC.
SEC Names Director of New York Regional Office
The Securities and Exchange Commission reports that Marc P. Berger has been named director of its New York regional office, joining the agency this month.
Berger joins from Ropes & Gray LLP, where he has been global co-head of its securities and futures enforcement practice.
Before joining Ropes & Gray, he spent 12 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, including a stint as chief of that office’s securities and commodities fraud task force, where he supervised what the commission calls the largest crackdown on hedge fund insider trading in U.S. history.
Berger will lead a staff of more than 390 enforcement attorneys, accountants, investigators, and compliance examiners involved in the investigation and prosecution of enforcement actions and the performance of compliance inspections in the New York region, the SEC says.
Board Changes at Cboe Global Markets’s Six Exchanges
Cboe Global Markets, Inc., an exchange holding company, reports changes in the membership of the boards of its six U.S. securities exchanges.
They are Cboe BZX Exchange, Cboe BYX Exchange, Cboe EDGA Exchange, Cboe EDGX Exchange, Cboe Options Exchange and Cboe C2 Options Exchange.
Because of the changes, Cboe’s six U.S. securities exchanges now have the same six directors.
New board members are Bruce Andrews, chairman of Cboe’s business conduct committee and a former Cboe options market-maker, and Kevin Murphy, former managing director of Citigroup, who will join Cboe Global Markets Chairman and CEO Ed Tilly and the three remaining current exchange directors, David Roscoe, Jill Sommers and Scott Wagner, in serving as directors of all six Cboe U.S. securities exchange boards going forward, according to a Cboe statement.
Chicago-headquartered Cboe Global Markets, formerly CBOE Holdings, Inc., completed its acquisition of Bats Global Markets last February, according to the statement.
AxiomSL Taps Credit Benchmark for Chief Client Officer
Harry Chopra, chief client officer, AxiomSL
Regulatory reporting vendor AxiomSL has appointed industry veteran Harry Chopra as chief client officer, to oversee AxiomSL’s global business development efforts, implement go-to-market strategies and build worldwide client-driven growth, officials say.
Chopra, who has more than 30 years of experience in global sales and financial services, has pioneered several initiatives in the financial sector, officials say. His most recent post was as chief commercial officer at Credit Benchmark, “where he developed the concept of consensus credit estimates” via a collaboration with the chief risk officer and chief credit officer community at national, regional and global banks.
Before his time at Credit Benchmark, Chopra was the head of sales and client services for S&P Capital IQ, officials say. He also held positions at Citigroup Asset Management as the head of international retail distribution and the head of institutional marketing.
AxiomSL targets its regulatory reporting, risk and data management solutions at banks, broker dealers, asset managers and other financial services firms. The vendor uses an enterprise data management (EDM) platform to offer data lineage, risk aggregation, analytics, workflow automation, validation and audit functionality and disclosure support, officials say.
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