BMLL Technologies has appointed Kevin Barrett as Senior Sales Director for listed derivatives in the United States, the London-based market data firm said today (Tuesday), bringing in a futures and quantitative research specialist as it looks to build out its presence in the asset class.
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Barrett spent nearly 13 years at Quantitative Brokers in New York, where he handled the full sales cycle for the firm's futures, options, spot FX and US cash treasury execution algorithms. Earlier in his career, he logged close to a decade at Graham Capital Management in Connecticut, working across quantitative research analyst, portfolio analyst and portfolio manager roles.
The Barrett hire is BMLL's second senior sales appointment since Nordic Capital completed its acquisition of the firm in October 2025, following the January appointment of Karen King as Head of Sales for Asia Pacific, where BMLL had recently added nine new exchange feeds.
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BMLL says it is actively building out its global futures offering, which the company says includes delivering Level 2 and Level 1 data feeds for the asset class and developing analytics to complement its existing equity suite.
Barrett, speaking in a statement, drew directly on his own research background to frame the pitch: "I am incredibly excited to join BMLL as the company looks to significantly expand its product offering... Drawing on my own background in quantitative research and trading, I intimately understand the challenges market participants face when researching and developing trading strategies.”
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“I know firsthand the tremendous value that BMLL's harmonized high-quality data and analytics can bring to researchers and quants looking to optimize their trading strategies."
Barrett’s broader background spans execution trading and research positions at Willowbridge Associates, Bengal Partners LLC and Trout Trading Management Co., as well as time at Merrill Lynch, putting his total industry experience at over 30 years.
Nordic Capital Deal Fuels Expansion Push
Nordic Capital acquired BMLL in October 2025 in a deal that also involved existing minority shareholder Optiver, which had led a $21 million investment in the firm in October 2024.
Rob Laible, Head of Americas at BMLL, said on Tuesday: "When Nordic Capital came on board, we made our intentions very clear, and we continue to deliver on this mission. We continue to invest in expanding our global venue footprint and extending our data coverage. This includes adding new asset classes such as global futures and options, and actively scaling our go-to-market teams globally."
The personnel moves come alongside a run of data partnerships. In March, BMLL launched a year-long pilot with Tradefeedr aimed at extending transaction cost analysis from foreign exchange into equities.
In February, the firm joined forces with Features Analytics to apply its order book records to market abuse detection across equities, ETFs, futures and US equity options.
BMLL was founded in 2014 in the machine learning laboratories of the University of Cambridge. It describes itself as a provider of harmonized historical Level 3, 2 and 1 data and analytics covering global equities, ETFs, futures and US equity options, targeting banks, brokers, asset managers, hedge funds, exchange groups, academic institutions and regulators.
