ICAP Appoints ex-State Street COO Wendy Phillis

UK-based ICAP Plc has today announced that Wendy Phillis has been appointed as Group Chief Risk Officer, and will join the company on April 14 2014.

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Wendy will take over from Colin Smith, ICAP’s current Group Chief Risk Officer, who has decided to retire from the industry, as previously announced. She will be based in London, and reporting to ICAP’s Group Chief Operating Officer Ken Pigaga.

Mrs. Phillis joins ICAP from State Street Global Markets where she was most recently COO for EMEA, and was previously Head of Risk Management over that region, as well as Head of Risk and Compliance for State Streets asset-servicing EMEA business, according to a description in the press release.

Mrs. Phillis had originally joined State Street in 1998, and departs after nearly 16 years from that company. Before that position, she worked at Price Waterhouse from 1997-1998 as a Consultant, and she had also worked at Fidelity Investments, and Investors Bank & Trust Company, all of which culminate to add up to her level of experience fitting for the new role.

In addition, some of the senior roles that Mrs. Phillis has been involved with included leading a team of more than 80 operations professionals providing middle- and back-office support to State Street’s trading businesses including foreign exchange, transition management, futures clearing and securities lending.

Her academic background includes a Masters’ of Business Administration Degree (MBA) obtained from Simmons College Graduate School of Management, and a Bachelor of Science Degree from Dickinson College where she Majored in Physics and Minored in Mathematics, according to the ICAP press release.

Wendy will assist ICAP’s business units and shared services to continue to embed risk management in their processes, projects and change management practices, as per the announcement, and one area of focus for her will be the further development of Operational Risk across the Group, as aspects of risk are vital in today’s world – to paraphrase ICAPs CEO who commented below:

Michael Spencer, Chief Executive Officer of ICAP, said regarding the appointment, “In today’s financial world, a strong risk management function is vital. Wendy will be pivotal in overseeing and further developing the global and integrated risk framework function within ICAP and she joins us with a strong track record. I would like to thank Colin for his service over these past three years and wish him the best for the future.”

The news follows Forex Magnates coverage, earlier this week, of ICAP’s Q1 update which showed strong growth for its newly launched EBS Direct offering.