Marex Group has appointed Alex Salomon to lead prime services sales in Israel, putting a dedicated salesperson on the ground in Tel Aviv for the first time as the London-listed broker expands the institutional franchise it has been assembling since acquiring Cowen's prime brokerage business in 2023.
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Salomon will cover Israeli hedge funds, family offices, asset managers and institutional clients from the firm's Tel Aviv office, the company said in a statement.
He will report into the EMEA prime services sales team and connect local managers to Marex's global trading, custody and capital introduction platform.
Veteran Banker Brings 25 Years of Trading Experience
According to his LinkedIn profile, Salomon spent five years as a director at Barclays Capital in New York before moving to Tel Aviv in 2010 to run the bank's local trading room and new product development.
He left Barclays in 2014 for Citi, where he spent a year representing the bank's Israeli credit franchise. Earlier in his career, he traded credit derivatives at Citigroup in New York and emerging markets bonds at Merrill Lynch.
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More recently, Salomon co-ran the trading desk at Caesarea-based global macro fund Hanavah Macro and served as director of credit at Exigent Capital Group in Jerusalem. He is a founding partner at Alon Credit and chairman of the board at Strawberry Fields REIT, an Israeli-listed nursing home operator.
His arrival mirrors the playbook Marex used in Dubai in late 2024, when it hired former IG Prime executive Mazen Najjar to spearhead institutional sales across the MENA region. Both hires sit inside the EMEA prime services franchise led by Lawrence Obertelli.
Prime Brokerage Build-Out Follows Cowen Deal
Marex's prime services unit was formed after the firm completed the acquisition of Cowen's prime brokerage and outsourced trading business in October 2023, bringing in roughly 160 professionals across eight offices and putting Jack Seibald and Mike Rosen at the head of the combined platform.
The unit sits inside Marex Capital Markets and competes with bank-owned prime brokers as well as a growing roster of mid-tier challengers.
The Israel hire lands at a point of consolidation in the prime brokerage industry.
A 2024 Acuiti survey commissioned by Standard Chartered found that nearly 40% of hedge funds had reduced their FX prime brokerage relationships in the prior three years, often because providers exited the market. Smaller funds reported the greatest dissatisfaction with the number of available providers.
That backdrop has opened space for non-bank platforms. Interactive Brokers launched its High Touch Prime Brokerage and Global Outsourced Trading service for US hedge funds in April 2024, positioning against the larger bank-owned primes.
Clear Street and Marex have also been connecting hedge fund clients to event contracts listed on prediction market Kalshi, illustrating how mid-tier brokers are using product breadth to court managers that may not get attention from larger competitors.
Cross-Asset Coverage From a Single Office
Marex Prime Services pitches a combination of cross-asset custody, securities financing, outsourced trading and capital introduction within one franchise.
The platform was reinforced earlier this year when Marex and NatWest agreed a cross-margining arrangement that lets FX clients reduce collateral requirements by linking futures and prime brokerage positions across the two providers.
"Tel Aviv is a highly active and diverse market, with clients operating across strategies and asset classes, and a strong outward focus on global opportunities," Salomon said in a statement shared on LinkedIn.
He added Marex's combination of "prime brokerage, outsourced trading and broader financial services" was "a strong draw" for him.
Local Coverage in a Concentrated Market
Israel's hedge fund and family office community has historically routed institutional flow through trading desks at the country's major banks and a handful of foreign primes operating without a local team.
The country has produced a thick layer of quant and macro funds but limited domestic prime infrastructure, leaving managers reliant on counterparties in London and New York.
Jack Seibald, Marex's global co-head of prime services and outsourced trading, said the firm's focus is on "helping managers launch, scale and operate effectively by combining prime brokerage, outsourced trading and capital introduction within a single, globally connected offering."
Obertelli described Salomon as bringing experience "across investing, trading and advisory, along with a strong relationships across the Israeli market."
Marex has been expanding aggressively across regions and asset classes over the past two years, with acquisitions including UK market maker Winterflood and Abu Dhabi-based Aarna Capital, as well as Brazilian commodities firm Agrinvest.
