2023 Conference Speaker Bios

Olivier Armantier, Ph.D.
Head of Consumer Behavior Studies
Federal Reserve Bank of New York 

Olivier Armantier is the head of Consumer Behavior Studies within the Household and Public Policy Research Division. Dr. Armantier is an expert in the field of Applied Econometrics, with special emphasis on structural models. Professor Armantier has applied these estimation techniques to a wide range of economic topics. His most significant contributions have been to the fields of Auctions, Experimental Economics, Industrial Organization, and Game Theory. Armantier has conducted a number of experiments, both in the U.S. and at the CIRANO, to analyze the behavioral foundations of economic activities. The structural estimation of these experimental data has enabled him to uncover new phenomenon related to learning, fairness and the perception of risks. Professor Armantier started his career at SUNY Stony Brook before moving to the Université de Montréal.

Gregg E, Berman, Ph.D.
Managing Director, Market Analytics & Regulatory Structure
Citadel Securities

Mr. Berman is managing director of the market analytics and regulatory structure unit of Citadel Securities in Chicago where he focuses on utilizing data and analytics to better inform on a host of advanced topics at the crossroads of market structure, rules, and regulations. Mr. Berman is an active participant on several advisory boards, including the Economics Advisory Committee of FINRA and the Advisory Board of the Financial Information Forum. From 2009 to 2015, Mr. Berman served at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC, where he established and was associate director of the office of analytics and research in the division of trading and markets covering a wide array of topics, including: equity and options market structure, the consolidated audit trail, exchange-traded products, the Volcker Rule, and security-based swaps. Mr. Berman is a physicist by training and
holds degrees from Princeton University (Ph.D. 1994, M.S. 1989), and the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (B.S. 1987).

Joseph Bracco
Senior Vice President and Head of Sales
MIAX Exchange Group

Joseph Bracco is Senior Vice President and Head of Sales for the MIAX Exchange Group™ where he manages the sales strategy and member relations for the MIAX® Options exchanges and MIAX® Pearl Equities exchange.  With over 35 years of experience in sales and trading in the derivatives, cash equity and fixed income markets, Joseph brings a deep knowledge of financial markets across multiple asset classes to his role at MIAX.

Before to joining MIAX in 2015, Joseph spent nearly eight years at BATS Global Markets, Inc. where he was Senior Vice President and held several prominent senior sales and strategic relations roles.  Prior to joining BATS, Mr. Bracco spent over 20 years in trading and electronic trading sales at Cantor Fitzgerald LLP/ eSpeed / BGC Partners Inc. in New York where he was Senior Vice President and Partner.

Richard Carleton
Chief Executive Officer
Canadian Securities Exchange

AJ Cass
Head of Market Structure and Liquidity
LTX, A Broadridge Company

AJ has 30 years of experience in the finance industry. Prior to joining LTX, he served as Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. His roles included managing and trading in the credit fixed income space. Prior to Goldman Sachs he managed the investment grade credit business for Bear Stearns. He has traded and managed risk his entire professional career.

Douglas Cifu
Chief Executive Officer
Virtu Financial 

Douglas Cifu is the Chief Executive Officer of Virtu Financial and was a co-founder of Virtu in 2008. Previously, he was a partner at the international law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. At Paul Weiss, Mr. Cifu served as a member of the Management Committee, Deputy Chair of the Corporate Department and co-head of the Private Equity Group.

He is recognized in Chambers USA and Legal 500 as a leading mergers and acquisitions lawyer for buyouts and private equity transactions. In 2006, Private Equity International listed him among the 30 most influential lawyers currently working in global private equity, citing his expertise in technology-driven sectors. He has been recognized by Crain’s New York Business in its “Technology 100,” a listing of the top 100 people working in technology in the New York area. In 2020, he was recognized as the #3 top FinTech CEO by The Financial Technology Report.

He serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the board of visitors of Columbia College at Columbia University.

Mr. Cifu earned his J.D. at Columbia Law School in 1990 and his B.A. magna cum laude from Columbia University in 1987 where he was also elected as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Helima Croft, PhD
Managing Director, Head of Global Commodity Strategy and MENA Research Global Research
RBC Capital Markets, LLC 

Helima is a Managing Director and the Head of Global Commodity Strategy and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Research at RBC Capital Markets. She specializes in geopolitics and energy, leading a team of commodity strategists that cover energy, metals and cross-commodity investor activity, as well as policy analysis and both Washington and global political insights. Helima is a member of the National Petroleum Council, a select group of individuals who advise, inform and make recommendations to the Secretary of Energy with respect to any matter relating to oil and natural gas. She also is a CNBC contributor, a member of the channel’s exclusive family of experts, is on the Board of Directors for the Atlantic Council, and is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is on the Board of Directors of Reservoir Media, Inc., the first femalefounded and led publicly traded independent music company in the U.S. Helima joined RBC Capital Markets from Barclays, where she was a Managing Director and Head of North American Commodities Research. Prior to that, she worked in Lehman’s Business Intelligence Group, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Central Intelligence Agency, where she focused on geopolitics and commodities. Helima has received many industry accolades throughout her career and received her PhD in economic history from Princeton in 2001. 

Mark Davies
Cofounder and CEO
S3

Mark Davies is Co-Founder and CEO of S3, a full–service compliance and trade analytics software. He is responsible for the organization’s business strategy, the executive team and has oversight of the company’s day-to-day operations, including client relations, sales, and business development.

A financial services executive with over 15 years experience in fintech and regtech, Mr. Davies has deep industry knowledge in trading technology, particularly trade surveillance, best execution analysis, and regulatory reporting. Currently, Mark is leading the industry on market structure and regulatory reporting requirements for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Rule 606 under Reg NMS and is sought after for his subject matter expertise.

Mr. Davies co-founded S3 in 2001. In 2004, S3 launched its first trading analytics product, redefining S3’s core business. Since then, under Mr. Davies guidance, S3 has improved trust in the industry through appropriate and intelligent disclosure via regulatory reporting and analytics.

Mr. Davies holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and three children.

David Dooman
Managing Director, Head of Retail and Exchange Related Technology 
DASH (an ION company)

David is responsible for leading DASH’s business development initiatives around its options ATS and retail order flow consolidator platform. Dave joined DASH in 2017 as part of the merger with Convergex’s Liquidpoint division, where he had spent over 12 years in a variety of LiquidPoint sales, business development, and product roles. He began his career as a clerk and later worked as a trader at several option trading firms.

Troy Draizen
Managing Director, Global Head of Electronic Trading
Jones Trading

Mr. Draizen joined Jones Trading Institutional Services LLS as Managing Director, Global Head of Electronic Trading in the firm’s New York office.  Draizen has over fifteen years of experience handling quantitative -focused initiatives to outperform client objectives.  His primary focus is to deliver next generation algorithmic strategies that leverage market microstructure signals that overlay deep learning (AI) applied statistical models to drive liquidity sourcing and alpha preservation.  Prior to joining Jones Trading, he was a Managing Director at Cowen on the Global Equity Trading desk and previously held similar roles at Convergex and KCG (Formerly Knight Capital).  Troy received a B.S in Biology and Molecular Neurobiology from the University of Hawaii.   Mr. Draizen also holds a certificate in Financial Engineering from The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University.   Mr. Draizen is a published author and holds the Series 3, 7, 24, 55, and 66 industry licenses. 

Jessica Froats
Head of Relationship Management
NYSE

Jessica Froats is the Head of Relationship Management at NYSE, overseeing sales across the equities, options and data businesses. She most recently served as the Head of NYSE Market Data. She has held various sales and product roles across the ICE organizations, including leading the Wealth Management Desktop team at ICE Data Services and data specialist roles at the ICE Exchange, covering Futures and OTC markets.

Roman Ginis
CEO
Imperative Executive Inc., parent of IntelligentCross®

Roman Ginis is the CEO of Imperative Execution, the financial technology company behind IntelligentCross, the first AI powered ATS for US equities that optimizes trading performance.  Since launching in 2018 the venue has won numerous accolades from brokers for top execution quality and is the only ATS with displayed liquidity.

Previously Roman was a quantitative trader at Point72 and UBS, where he ran portfolios in US equities. Before finance, he worked on DARPA projects at BAE and stream processing technology at IBM Watson Labs. Roman holds a Ph.D in Computer Science from Caltech in distributed systems and discrete optimization.

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Jesse Greif 
Chief Operating Officer
OneChronos Markets

Jesse holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Psychology from Northeastern University. He also holds FINRA Series 24, 57, 63, and 7 licenses.

Adrian Griffiths, Esq. 
Head of Market Structure
MEMX

Adrian Griffiths joined MEMX as Head of Market Structure in May 2021. In this leadership role, he serves as a dedicated resource to help develop MEMX’s viewpoints on market structure and industry-wide developments. Adrian amplifies the exchange’s voice on issues important to the MEMX membership by participating in engagement efforts with policy makers, regulators, and industry participants. Adrian also represents MEMX and its members by developing relevant thought leadership pieces and speaking at industry events.

Adrian has deep experience in the exchange space and was previously Assistant General Counsel at Cboe Global Markets, where he served as primary counsel to the U.S. equities and market data businesses. In this role, he provided strategic advice to business leaders and worked with the SEC to secure regulatory approval for major equities market structure proposals. He was a Senior Associate General Counsel at Nasdaq prior, advising on legal and policy issues impacting Nasdaq’s options and equities businesses.

Adrian received his J.D. from New York University School of Law. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Amherst College.

Bryan Harkins 
Chief Revenue Officer
Trumid

Bryan Harkins is the Chief Revenue Officer of Trumid, a rapidly growing financial technology company and fixed income electronic trading platform. Bryan joined Trumid in 2021 and is responsible for driving Trumid’s revenue growth, including go-to-market strategies and client adoption of new and existing products.

Bryan has more than 20 years of electronic trading and executive management experience spanning across fixed income, equities, derivatives, FX, market data, and ETF listings. Bryan was formerly Executive Vice President, Head of the Markets Division, and President of BIDS Trading at Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe). Under his leadership, Cboe was the largest options and third largest equities exchange operator in the U.S. and one of the premier exchange brands globally. Bryan leveraged Cboe’s scale and footprint to build a highly profitable global market data business and to become one of the leading ETF listing exchanges, with more than 20% of all U.S. ETFs listing on Cboe. Bryan also led Cboe’s FX ascension to become one of the largest institutional spot ECNs in the world.

Bryan joined Cboe in 2017 as part of its acquisition of Bats Global Markets (Bats), where he was Executive Vice President, Head of U.S. Markets, and Global FX. Prior to Bats, Bryan was a founding employee and COO of Direct Edge, leading the firm’s growth into one of the largest players in the U.S. equities market. Direct Edge was acquired by Bats in 2014. Bryan is the Co-Founder of Wall Street Rides FAR, an annual charity cycling and walking event that brings together firms from across the capital markets to benefit the Autism Science Foundation.

Bryan holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and FINRA Series 7, 24, 55, and 63 licenses.

Patrick Hickey
Managing Director, Participant Services and Solutions
OCC

Patrick Hickey is Managing Director, Participant Services and Solutions, at OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Hickey is responsible for OCC’s delivery of new exchange-traded products in U.S. options and futures, as well as furthering initiatives and enhancements on behalf of market participants.

Previously, Hickey was the Head of Market Structure for Optiver U.S., a global proprietary trading company, where he was the firm’s primary liaison to the financial industry, representing the firm strategically to exchanges, partners, and industry groups.

Hickey served on the boards of the Nasdaq Exchange and International Securities Exchange. In addition, he has served in an elected capacity on the Executive Committee of FIA Principal Traders Group (PTG), and was a member of the STA Listed Options Committee, the Nasdaq Futures Exchange (NFX) Market Advisory and Business Conduct Committees, and the NYSE Arca Options Ethics and Business Conduct Committee.

Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto 
Chief Strategy Officer
EDX Markets

Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto is the Chief Strategy Officer of EDX Markets.  In this role she is responsible for launch and growth of the EDX digital asset exchange.  From 2020-2022, Jeanine was the CEO of Atomyze LLC, which was a fintech company that developed a tokenization platform and marketplace for physical commodities. From 2018-2020 Jeanine served as the Managing Director of Operations at Gemini Trust Company, LLC, a chartered NY State Trust Company that operates a digital asset exchange and offers custodian services. From 2004-2017, Jeanine held several leadership roles, including Chief Operating Officer, at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), a NASDAQ subsidiary that operates three securities exchanges. Jeanine started her career in 1998 as a Financial Analyst in the Technology Investment Banking group of Wachovia Securities. 

Currently, Jeanine serves on the Board of Digital Prime Technologies, which offers a full suite of turnkey prime services for traditional firms entering the digital asset space.

She is a graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with degrees in Economics and Biology.

Thomas Hochleutner
Senior Compliance Officer
Clear Street 

Thomas Hochluetner is Senior Compliance officer at Clear Street, an independent, non-bank prime broker building modern infrastructure for capital markets. Prior to joining Clear Street in July 2022, Thomas was Head of ATS Operations and Strategy at Instinet, where he was responsible for product rollouts, client communications, technology changes and ATS supervision. Before Instinet, Thomas was Head of ATS Product at Virtu, managing business and operations for Virtu MatchIt, an alternative trading system for NMS equity securities.

Thomas holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 3, 4, 57, and 63 Registrations. He is a graduate of Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Scinece in 2006.

Sean Hoover
Managing Director & Chief Operating Officer
PureStream Trading Technologies, Inc. 

Sean Hoover is Managing Director and Chief Operating officer of PureStream Trading Technologies, Inc., an innovative institutional trading venue focused on increasing institutional liquidity “bandwidth.” Sean began his career on the trading desk at RCM Capital Management in San Francisco where he was responsible for executing equities transactions for their institutional portfolios. In 1995 Sean joined Goldman Sachs in their San Francisco office as a sales-trader covering West Coast institutional clients. In 2001 Sean was named Managing Director and had responsibility for all Equities and Fixed Income businesses on the West Coast. In 2005 Sean relocated to New York to run Goldman’s International Execution teams. He was later promoted to Partner and named Global Co-Head of Equities Execution Services, a collection of business units comprised of more than 600 people spanning offices around the world. Sean’s 30 years of commercial and leadership success have earned him the trust and confidence of buy-side trading teams around the world. Sean Hoover graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He holds numerous regulatory securities licenses and serves on the board of “Part of the Solution” in Bronx, NY. He is happily married and currently resides in Rye, New York with his wife and three children.

Brian Hyndman
President & Chief Operating Officer
Blue Ocean Technologies LLC

Brian Hyndman is the President and Chief Operating Officer for BOT.

Previously, Brian was the Senior Vice President of Global Information Services for The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. In this role, he was responsible for the creation and dissemination of valuable information from the quoting and trading in NASDAQ OMX’s trading systems worldwide. Mr. Hyndman oversees various internal teams, including Sales, Product Management, Content Administration & Policy, and New Business Development.

He previously served as Senior Vice President of Transaction Services and was responsible for managing operations of U.S. equities trading platforms including The NASDAQ Stock Market, NASDAQ OMX BX and NASDAQ OMX PSX.

Prior to joining NASDAQ in 2004, Mr. Hyndman was the President of BRUT, an electronic communications network (ECN) that competed with the various equity markets in the U.S. He presided over the BRUT’s merger with Strike Technologies in 2000, the sale of BRUT to Sungard Data Systems in 2002 and the eventual sale of BRUT to The NASDAQ Stock Market in 2004.

Prior to joining BRUT, Mr. Hyndman served as Vice President of Execution Services for the National Discount Brokers Group, managing 120 employees. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the State University of New York at Oswego. Mr. Hyndman has held a variety of FINRA licenses and from the National Association of Securities Dealers, including the 4, 7, 24, 27, 53 and 63.

Matt Iwamaye
Senior Director, Assistant General Counsel
Cboe Global Markets

Matt Iwamaye serves as Senior Director, Assistant General Counsel, at Cboe Global Markets, providing legal support to each of Cboe’s four U.S. equities exchanges, including providing legal guidance and advice on numerous related issues, including market structure, managing regulatory filings, SEC compliance and otherwise advising the business teams overseeing the U.S. equities exchanges. 

Prior to joining Cboe, Matt served as Associate Director & Senior Counsel at RBC Capital Markets, LLC, and Director & Assistant General Counsel at BofA Securities.  In his roles at RBC and BofA, Matt advised the equities trading desks on how to structure their business initiatives and transactions in a manner compliant with relevant rules, laws, and regulations.  Matt’s coverage areas included, amongst others, cash equities sales and trading, electronic equities, alternative trading systems, listed options sales and trading, and the institutional middle markets businesses.

Prior to his legal advisory roles, Matt served as Vice President, Senior Compliance Manager, in Bank of America’s Regulatory Inquiries group, and as a Regulatory Analyst at Barclays Corporate & Investment Bank. In these roles Matt was responsible for responding to regulatory inquiries from securities regulators such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Matt received his J.D. from New York Law School and is admitted to practice in New York. He received his B.S. in finance, Cum Laude, from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, in 2003.

Raj Iyer
Chief Product Officer 
Templum

Raj Iyer is the Chief Product Officer at Templum, the leading provider of next-generation cloud-based capital market infrastructure for alternative assets and private securities. In this role, he drives the development of all Templum product lines. With over 25 years of experience as an expert in the financial services sector, Raj speaks frequently on innovation, alternatives, emerging technologies, market structure, data, and compliance.

Raj served in multiple senior positions at BNY Mellon, including Asset Servicing, Treasury Services, and Markets where he developed strategic fintech partnerships and investments to accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies. He also launched and managed digitalization initiatives across enterprises after building and growing BNY Mellon’s FX Overlay product and developing BNY Mellon’s eCommerce offering. He also managed Bloomberg’s FX ECN and developed novel products at Lava Trading. He started his career at Citibank and then EBS (currently owned by CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange), which was spun out of Citi, growing to be the largest interbank FX system globally. During this time, he was a member of the Operations Managers Working Group of the FX Committee at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

He holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.S. from New York University.

Patricia Koetzner
Managing Director, Equity Sales and Trading 
Siebert Williams Shank

Patricia E. Koetzner is Managing Director, Equity Sales and Trading, for Siebert, Williams, Shank & Co. LLC, a leading minority owned broker dealer.  Patricia’s two primary functions include; driving new revenue growth by expanding revenue generating relationships and facilitating equity trading for the firm. Her equity trading functions include: traditional long/short sales trading coverage, implementation of algorithmic strategies, share repurchases, trading and program trading. Ms. Koetzner has served in various capacities in the securities industry for now over 22 years, most recently including her role as Managing Director/Head of Equity Sales & Trading at CastleOak Securities, L.P. Prior to that, Ms. Koetzner served as vice president of Barclays Capital for seven years where she covered cash accounts and repurchased shares for corporations, before becoming a member of its electronic trading group. For the first decade of her career, she was a NASDAQ market maker for firms including Neuberger Berman, LLC, Gruntal & Co. and Dominick & Dominick, Inc. Patricia earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maine and holds FINRA series three, seven, 24, 55 and 63.

Saken Kulkarni
Managing Director
Slalom

Saken Kulkarni is a Managing Director in the Data & Technology at Slalom, a global purpose-led consulting firm. Saken has spent his career advising clients on data, specifically AI/ML, to achieve optimal returns and outcomes in the financial services space

Chris Larkin
Managing Director-Head of Trading & Investing
E*TRADE

Chris is responsible for the strategic direction and growth of the self-directed channel for retail trading and investing at E*TRADE. Leveraging more than 25 years of experience delivering retail and institutional brokerage services, Mr. Larkin oversees the E*TRADE trading and investing team to deliver innovative and relevant products, tools, education and services to ETRADE’s retail client base.

Mr. Larkin has been instrumental in enhancing the customer experience, expanding capabilities on the Power E*TRADE platform and building the company's options offering from the ground up, resulting in increasing options as a percentage of daily average revenue trades to over 35 percent in 2019.   Mr. Larkin also contributed to the introduction of innovative new product and service offerings including E*TRADE Mobile, E*TRADE Pro, ETRADE’s Global Trading Platform, and the E*TRADE Complete™ Investment Account.  Prior to his tenure at E*TRADE, Mr. Larkin served as Managing Director of Corporate Services and Fixed Income Sales at TD Ameritrade. There he led the TD Bank relationship and referral program and delivered designated brokerage and stock plan services to more than 1,500 corporate clients. Mr. Larkin also served as the Vice President at Datek Online, where he helped grow their online brokerage business and held institutional sales and trading positions with ING Barings and Bloomberg LP.

Mr. Larkin holds series 3, 7, 8, 24, and 63 licenses, and is a member of the SIFMA Options Committee and Options Industry Council Roundtable. He also serves as the Reserve Board Member of the Members Exchange. He earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Villanova University.

Lynn Martin
President
NYSE Group

Lynn Martin is President of NYSE Group, which includes the New York Stock Exchange, the world’s largest stock market. 

Martin is the 68th President of the New York Stock Exchange and the second woman to lead the exchange in its 230-year history. The NYSE, the premier venue for capital raising, is the listing home to 2,400 of the world’s most influential and innovative companies. 

In addition to the exchange, NYSE Group includes four fully electronic equity markets, including NYSE Arca, the industry leader in ETFs, and two options exchanges. 

Martin is also Chair of Fixed Income & Data Services at Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), the parent of NYSE Group. Most recently, she was President of that business, responsible for ICE Bonds execution venues, securities pricing and analytics, reference data, indices, desktop solutions, consolidated feeds and connectivity services that cover all major asset classes. 

She previously served as President of ICE Data Services, COO of ICE Clear U.S., and in a number of leadership roles including CEO of NYSE Liffe U.S. and CEO of New York Portfolio Clearing. Martin began her career at IBM in its Global Services organization. 

Martin holds a BS in Computer Science from Manhattan College and an MA in Statistics from Columbia University. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Partnership for New York City and the Inner-City Scholarship Fund. Martin also serves on the Manhattan College Board of Trustees as well as the Advisory Board of the School of Science and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society. 

Joseph Mecane
Head of Execution Services
Citadel Securities 

Joseph Mecane is Head of Execution Services at Citadel Securities. In this role, he is responsible for the firm’s client-facing equity, options, FX, and ETF businesses. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Mecane was Global Head of Electronic Equities at Barclays. Previously, he worked for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for six years, most recently serving as the Head of U.S. Equities. His earlier career included roles at UBS Securities, Schwab Capital Markets, Knight Capital Group and Price Waterhouse. Mr. Mecane is involved with numerous industry organizations, currently serving as Chairman of the Nasdaq Quality of Markets Committee and on the Board of Trustees for the Museum of American Finance. He is also a member of the National Organization of Investment Professionals and the SIFMA Advisory Council. He was previously a member of the SEC’s Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee and served on the FINRA Board of Governors, the Nasdaq Exchange Board and the BATS Exchange Board. Mr. Mecane received an MBA, with honors, from the Wharton school of the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree from Pace University.

Stephen R. Miele, Jr. 
Chief Strategy Officer
LeveL ATS

Mr. Miele has served in the financial services industry for over 25 years. Prior to joining LeveL ATS, he was an Equity Trader for Fidelity Capital Markets on the Boston Stock Exchange. Mr. Miele has been with LeveL ATS for 15 years, which recently merged with Luminex Trading & Analytics, he is responsible for Corporate Strategy and Revenue.

Charles Morris 
Chief Data Scientist for Financial Services
Microsoft

Charles Morris is the Chief Data Scientist for Financial Services at Microsoft. He works with customers across banking, capital markets, and insurance to develop strategic AI projects and help executives prioritize their AI initiatives. Charles also assists technical teams in designing, architecting, and developing their solutions and platforms to unlock the full potential of AI. This unique combination of AI technical competency and financial services domain knowledge gives Charles a unique perspective that helps customers be more successful in their AI initiatives.

Andrew Oppenheimer
Head of Business Development, Equities
Nasdaq

Andrew is Head of Business Development and Strategy for US Equities at Nasdaq his responsibilities range from account coverage, product and strategic initiatives. Andrew led product for US Equities. He is a member of the SIP Operating Committee. Andrew is also on Nasdaq’s Best Execution Committee, focused on ensuring that order routing practices are optimized for trading opportunities and execution quality. Prior to joining Nasdaq in 2017, Andrew worked at KCG as product manager for the ATS and lead its migration to new infrastructure, and updating its execution logic. As a client facing product manager, he spoke to clients regarding execution quality and performance while continually sourcing new business. He focused on keeping the ATS running smoothly (and compliant) growing trading volume and revenues through involvement in business strategy, product development, sales and overall advocacy for the ATS. Prior to joining KCG, Andrew worked at Cantor Fitzgerald to launch and manage the trading strategies of a multi-billion dollar quantitatively enhanced index fund.  

Joel Oswald
Principal
Williams & Jensen, PLLC

Joel Oswald is a principal at the law and lobbying firm, Williams & Jensen. He specializes in a legislative and regulatory practice focused on financial services policy. With over 20 years of public and private sector experience, Mr. Oswald works with clients on a range of legislative and regulatory issues, including equity trading, asset management, securities, banking, consumer finance, fintech, and insurance policy.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Oswald served on the professional staff of the Subcommittee on International Trade and Finance and later the Subcommittee on Securities and Investment, both of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.  He is a graduate of Evangel University and received an MBA from Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School.

Jason Paltrowitz
EVP, Corporate Services 
OTC Markets Group 

In his dual role as Director, OTC Markets Group International Ltd. and EVP, Corporate Services, Jason Paltrowitz manages the company’s international and domestic Corporate Services business, supporting more than 1,200 companies that trade on the premium OTCQX and OTCQB Markets. Leveraging his background in financial services and expertise in cross-border trading, Jason spearheads sales initiatives and alliances to provide issuers with efficient alternatives to raise capital, access U.S. investors, and help small-cap companies alleviate the cost and complexity associated with being a public company.  

Prior to joining OTC Markets Group in October 2013, Jason was Managing Director and Segment Head at JP Morgan Chase responsible for the custody, clearing and collateral management business in the Corporate and Investment Bank division. Jason also held multiple senior management positions at BNY Mellon, most notably, as Head of M&A for the Financial Markets and Treasury Services Sector and 11 years as the Head of the Global Capital Markets Group in the Depositary Receipt Division.  

Jason served on the Board of Directors of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) from 2017 - 2020. He previously served as a member of the Board of Directors at OTC Markets Group from 2008 - 2011. Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Boston University and received his MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business. 

Phil Pearson
Head of Electronic Product for the Americas 
Barclays

Phil Pearson joined Barclays in 2023 as Head of Electronic Product for the Americas.  Based in New York, he oversees all equity trading initiatives in the region including algorithmic trading, order routing, and liquidity.  He is also responsible for the execution consulting practice, advising clients on trading strategies.  Until recently, Mr. Pearson was an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan where he was the Head of Algorithmic Product Management for the Americas. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Mr. Pearson spent 11 years at ITG. At ITG, he held various roles within algorithmic trading, including trading coverage, execution consulting, market structure, and ultimately Head of Product for Algorithmic Trading and Routing products. Mr. Pearson began his career at E*TRADE Capital Markets.

Mr. Pearson graduated from Colgate University with degrees in Economics and History, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Hester M. Peirce
Commissioner
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Hester M. Peirce was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was sworn in on January 11, 2018.

Prior to joining the SEC, Commissioner Peirce conducted research on the regulation of financial markets at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She was a Senior Counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where she advised Ranking Member Richard Shelby and other members of the Committee on securities issues. Commissioner Peirce served as counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins. She also worked as a Staff Attorney in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. Commissioner Peirce was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) and clerked for Judge Roger Andewelt on the Court of Federal Claims.

Commissioner Peirce earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Case Western Reserve University and her JD from Yale Law School.

Will Powers
COO & Head of Capital Markets
AKRU

Will currently serves as COO, and Head of Capital Markets for AKRU, a commercial real estate tokenization platform which tokenizes commercial real estate using blockchain technology.  Will has spent over 30 years in the financial services industry. Prior to AKRU, Will served as CEO for Alternative Advisers, LLC, a consulting firm for real estate sponsors looking to raise capital through independent broker dealer and RIA channels. Over his career, Will has worked with several successful companies in building out distribution and capital raising efforts, including ING Funds, Dividend Capital, and Preferred Apartment Communities. Will has a BS in Business from Emmanuel College and holds a Series 7, 24, and 63 securities licenses. 

John Ramsay
Chief Market Policy Officer 
IEX

John is responsible for developing and communicating IEX's positions on market policy issues, engaging with governmental and regulatory authorities and liaising with pension owners and other asset owners. He also oversees IEX's membership in the national market system plans, including those concerning consolidated market data, the consolidated audit trail, and the Limit Up/Limit Down plans.

John joined IEX in 2014 from the SEC, where he led the Division of Trading and Markets, the group responsible for regulating broker-dealers and self-regulatory organizations. Previously, he led SEC efforts to implement significant elements of the Dodd-Frank Act. Prior to the SEC, he held senior positions at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the National Association of Securities Dealers (now FINRA), the law firm of Morgan Lewis & Bockius, and Citigroup Global Markets.

An expert in the regulation of securities professionals and securities markets, John serves as adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School, is a member of the Markets Advisory Council of the Council of Institutional Investors and is a recipient of the Law and Policy Award at the SEC.

John earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Jennica Ross
Head of US ETF Sales & Portfolio Trading
Susquehanna International Group, LLP

Jennica Ross is Head of US ETF Sales and Portfolio Trading at Susquehanna International Group, one of the largest proprietary trading firms in the world and one of the world’s most active ETF market makers. She oversees a team focused on providing a wide range of clients – including platforms, asset managers, wealth managers, institutions -- expert ETF and portfolio trading execution, consultation and education, as well as engaging with the issuer capital markets community on product launches, lead market making, seed capital and ongoing liquidity and trading support.

Jennica joined SIG in 2022 after having served as Head of Strategic Relationships at WallachBeth Capital for the last ten years, where she oversaw the firm's key strategic partnerships and business development initiatives. Prior to that, she held senior roles at Guggenheim Investments and UBS Wealth Management. Jennica currently serves as Co-President for Women in ETFs US and graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in Politics.

Dan Sanders
President and Head of Private Markets
InvextX Markets

Dan Sanders is President of InvestX Markets and Head of Private Markets, responsible for securing key partners across multiple industries, identifying new investment opportunities and sourcing shares in late-stage private equity. Sanders leads the growth strategy for InvestX’s trading platform, overseeing transactions and the onboarding of Banks and Broker Dealers to InvestX GEM (Growth Equity Marketplace).

Sanders was formerly the Head of Execution Services in the Americas for Citi, where his responsibilities included running cash sales trading, electronic execution sales, portfolio trading, and platform sales. Dan sat on multiple committees including Global Capital Markets, Americas Equities, Global Prime Finance, Delta 1 and Global Sales.  He went on to be the Head of Business Development in the Americas for Liquidnet, a global institutional investment network that connects asset managers with liquidity. Dan began his career in Fixed Income, trading Mortgage-Backed Securities at PaineWebber, Inc. and brings more than 25 years of finance, trading, equity, technology
and sales experience.

Cass Sanford
Deputy General Counsel
OTC Markets Group

Cass leads regulatory and policy making initiatives at OTC Markets Group.  She represents the company on public panels and before industry and regulatory groups, focusing on equity market structure, capital formation, digital assets and other capital markets trends.  Cass currently serves as an advisor to the Board of Governors of the Securities Traders Association.  Prior to joining OTC Markets Group, Cass represented issuers, broker-dealers and individuals in securities litigation and in regulatory matters.  Cass received her J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law and her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College.  She is a member of the New York Bar.

Clare Saperstein
Head of Market Services
NYSE

Clare Saperstein is Head of Market Services for the New York Stock Exchange, overseeing the NYSE’s market structure policy and strategy as well as its participation in the National Market System (NMS)
plans. She also manages the NYSE’s SIAC and Market Data Administration teams.

Previously, Saperstein was Head of Equities, responsible for strategy, product development and relationship management across the NYSE’s five equity exchanges, TRF, Global OTC and NYSE Bonds. She also served as an Associate General Counsel at the NYSE and as a Senior Vice President at NYSE Regulation, responsible for rule development and oversight of its regulatory relationship with FINRA. Prior to joining the NYSE, Saperstein was a litigation associate at New York-based firms Patterson Belknap, Webb & Tyler and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Saperstein graduated magna cum laude from Boston University’s School of Law. She also holds an A.B. in Political Science and Dance from Columbia University.

Rich Steiner
Head of Client Advocacy and Market Innovation 
RBC Capital Markets

Rich Steiner leads RBC Capital Markets’ efforts to foster an open and honest dialogue on equity market developments with government officials and actively engages clients to develop a truly unique offering. He leads RBC’s equity market structure advocacy efforts, focusing on more efficient, more transparent, less-conflicted markets and works closely with RBC’s Regulatory and Government Affairs team in Washington, DC. Additionally, Rich helps to capitalize on RBC’s innovation capabilities by connecting clients with fintech offerings through a partnership with RBC’s West Coast Innovation Team. He also drives various strategic innovation initiatives across RBC Global Markets, Investment Banking, Wealth Management, and City National Bank.

Rich joined RBC in 2009 and was one of the key founding members of RBC's THOR electronic trading platform, as well as Head of Market Structure Strategy. He currently serves on a number of industry groups, including the SIFMA Equity Markets & Trading Committee and is a board member of National Organization of Investment Professionals (NOIP). Prior to joining RBC, Rich held electronic and program trading positions at BNP Paribas, ITG and Goldman Sachs.

Nick Stephan
Global Head of Fixed Income Product and Partnership Programs
Liquidnet

As Global Head of Fixed Income Product and Partnership Programs, Nick is responsible for the evolution of the Liquidnet Fixed Income offering. He is tasked with bringing together Liquidnet’s predominantly buy-side Member community with TP ICAP’s deep bench of market making clients, across the Agency Execution division. Based in New York, Nick’s focus is creation, development, and marketing of new trading protocols as well as cultivating and managing strategic partnerships.

Prior to joining Liquidnet, Nick spent seven years at GFI Group, a division of BGC Partners, holding various positions managing hybrid credit businesses and fixed income technology buildouts. Most recently he co-headed Fenics DeltaX where he was responsible for the end-to-end design, build, and launch of the fixed income trading venue.

Prior to that, across an eleven-year period Nick founded and operated boutique brokerage firms, most recently Phoenix Partners Group where he spent eight years as CEO. During his tenure he expanded the New York based startup to a company of 130+ with offices in New York, London, Geneva, and Paris. He transitioned the firm from a traditional voice brokerage business to pure electronic and hybrid broking business overseeing the global buildout of its technology. Phoenix was acquired by GFI Group in 2013.

Eric Stockland
Managing Director Electronic Trading 
BMO Capital Markets

Eric has more than 20 years of experience in trading, capital markets technology, and exchange operations. Prior to joining BMO Capital Markets, he served as IEX’s Chief Strategy Officer, representing IEX in industry and regulatory policy discussions and providing leadership to multiple teams within IEX. Eric led product development, quantitative research and business development teams at various times during his 4 year tenure with the company.

Eric came to IEX in 2016 from KCG, where as an execution consultant he advised clients on strategy selection and tactical order management to minimize market impact and execution costs. Eric joined KCG’s predecessor company, GETCO in 2007 as an exchange relationship manager before transitioning into a quantitative trader role where he built valuation models and exchange execution logic for equities and futures. Eric began his career at Archipelago in 2001 (now NYSE Arca) as a Quality Assurance Engineer where he was responsible for testing trading & routing algorithms. While at Archipelago and NYSE he held various positions in market data and the equity options division.

Ryan Szakacs
Head of ETF Capital Markets Group
J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Ryan Szakacs is the Head of J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s ETF Capital Markets group. He is responsible for managing the group’s broker dealer and exchange relationships along with delivering market insights, trading guidance and product structure expertise to JPM’s clients. Mr. Szakacs sits on both ICI’s and SIFMA’s Equity Market Structure committees.

Prior to joining JPM, Mr. Szakacs led client coverage for BlackRock’s ETF Capital Markets team. He began his career at Blackrock in 2008 as a portfolio manager and trader on their Quantitative Investment team and as a portfolio manager in their iShares ETF division.  Before joining BlackRock, he spent several years at both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Goldman Sachs.

Mr. Szakacs earned his MBA degree from Duke University

Jordi Visser
President and Chief Investment Officer
Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisors LLC

Jordi has over 30 years of experience in the investment and finance industry. At Weiss, Jordi oversees the portfolio managers and is responsible for the overall risk aggregation. He joined Weiss in 2005 and ran a macro portfolio before becoming the President and Chief Investment Officer. Additionally, he is the architect and a portfolio manager for the Weiss Alternative Multi-Strategy Fund (Ticker: WEISX), a strategy that reflects the firm's market neutral approach and the desire to make its expertise in alternatives universally accessible. Jordi is the host of the video series "Real-Time with Jordi Visser" and a lead contributor to the firm's podcast, "In Search of Green Marbles." Jordi began his career at Morgan Stanley, where he held various senior management roles, including opening the office for the firm in Brazil. Jordi has been featured as a guest speaker on various popular podcasts and media outlets. Jordi is a magna cum laude graduate of Manhattan College and a Board Member of the School of Business at Manhattan College.

Research: Jordi's Journal

Videos: Real-Time with Jordi Visser Podcasts: In Search of Green Marbles

Twitter : @jvisser_weiss Jordi's LinkedIn Profile

Matthew Walters
Head of Portfolio Trading
MarketAxess

Matt Walters joined MarketAxess in April of 2021 as a Portfolio Trading Specialist with additional responsibilities for other credit products. In this role Matt is primarily focused on building upon the current MarketAxess list trading ecosystem by delivering efficient and streamlined execution through enhancements to the current portfolio trading workflow. Prior to MarketAxess Matt served as Fixed Income COO and Head of Fixed Income Business Management at Liquidnet responsible for building the firms trading protocols and the day to day management of the fixed income business. Matt has held positions focused on trading, product management, operations, strategic initiatives and technology across both equities and credit since graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2007.

David Weisberger
CEO & Co-founder
CoinRoutes

David Weisberger, CEO & Co-Founder of CoinRoutes, has over 35 years of experience in market structure, quantitative finance, and trading automation.

Dave started his career at Morgan Stanley where he built their first program and electronic trading systems. Subsequently, he started the non-dollar program trading desk for Salomon Brothers and became the global architect of the firm’s equity trading platform.

While at Salomon, Dave designed their first trading algorithm using Volume Weighted Average Price as the benchmark, and he contributed to the creation of Stock Facts Pro Impact Cost Model using volume and volatility as a proxy for cost, which was later adopted by Robert Almgren and Neil Christo to develop their model.  Next, Dave ran statistical arbitrage trading and electronic market making while developing the firm's first quantitatively managed central risk book. Later on, the firm (now Citigroup through merger) asked Dave to run Lava Trading, the smart routing company, Citi had purchased back in 2004, but which had seen its margins erode while expenses, increased. Dave re-positioned Lava by leveraging their ATS to become profitable, by growing volumes and taking advantage of economies of scale.

In 2009 Dave joined Two Sigma, where he started the wholesale market-making business running Two Sigma Securities. During his tenure, he oversaw the transition of all high frequency trading businesses from the fund to the broker dealer he was responsible for. In late 2014 Dave joined Reg One Technologies and in 2015 IHS Markit acquired RegOne Technologies, naming Dave their Global Head of Equity Market Structure and Quantitative Equity Products.

In 2017, he was introduced to the crypto assets pace by his co- founder, Ian Weisberger, and decided to join him in founding CoinRoutes to provide clients one solution to trading algorithmically across the entire market. CoinRoutes is built for the idiosyncrasies of the crypto market structure, helping clients minimize slippage and achieve operational efficiencies.

CoinRoutes is Dave’s passion. The company’s growth during these past five years and innovation path through its history is a result of the knowledge built throughout his career. Together with other industry leading companies, CoinRoutes is helping to shape the crypto world. The experiences Dave has collected in management, market-making, quant, algos and the large traditional finance space is fundamental to CoinRoutes’ success. His weekly YouTube videos, reviewing of the market, and frequent speech engagements on conferences and podcasts are a reflection of his influence.

Social network platforms:

● Twitter: @DaveWeisberger1

● LinkedIn: @Dave-Weisberger-7b0b9ab

● CoinRoutes:

○ Website: www.coinroutes.com

○ Twitter: @CoinRoutes

○ YouTube: @CoinRoutes

Sam Yudelovich
Managing Director-Business Development
IMC

Sam Yudelovitch serves as Managing Director of Business Development.  In this role, he is responsible for managing and cultivating relationships with the professional trading community and exploring partnerships that leverage IMC’s core capabilities as a global market maker.  Sam works directly with trading counterparties, exchanges, and ETP Issuers to support and bring new trading products to market.

Prior to joining IMC, Sam spent 10 years at UBS Investment Bank where he was head of the U.S. electronic broker dealer business & the UBS Alternative Trading System. He was responsible for working with both buy-side and sell-side clients to improve upon their order routing and liquidity strategies. Under Sam’s leadership, the investment bank’s broker-dealer business grew to be one of the largest broker-dealer operations in the U.S.

Prior to UBS, Sam worked at Charles River Development where he focused on the successful launch and ongoing management of the Charles River FIX network. He began his career in various technical and account management roles at Instinet and Island ECN. Sam holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from New York University and is Series 7, 63, & 24 licensed.  He lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.