Trading Places: GKFX Gets New CEO, Big Banks Shuffling Personnel

Monday, September 12

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Karl Roessner, E*TRADE

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC) shook up its leadership with the appointment of Karl A. Roessner, the group’s acting Executive Vice President (EVP) and General Council, as its newest Chief Executive Officer. The leadership transition at E*TRADE takes place on the heels of the brokerage’s OptionsHouse transaction, paving the way for a new outlook for the group.

Spencer Lake, HSBC

HSBC is poised to see a void in its global banking and markets division following the announced departure of longtime company mainstay Spencer Lake, who is be parting ways with the lender after a tenure lasting a decade. Mr. Lake originally joined HSBC in 2006 and worked as its Global Head of Debt Capital Markets (DCM) and Acquisition Finance. In this capacity he helped run HSBC’s multi-currency public, private, structured and vanilla debt origination, which included high grade, high yield securitization and event financing, as well as associated Risk Management globally.

Tuesday, September 13

Idan Hartman, NDF Media Group

Idan Hartman, who for more than 4 years headed Fusion Media Agency, joined the online charting and financial products specialist NetDania to co-found NDF Media Group, a competing portal. Hartman’s joint venture with the Danish giant will provide financial data for traders, including market quotes, financial analyses, financial tools, signals and other tools to assist decision making.

Brian Myers, GKFX

Brian Myers, the former OANDA Europe Vice President (VP), last week joined GKFX as its newest Chief Executive Officer following a number of recent moves at the broker over the past two months. For the third time in under a month, GKFX has appointed a senior member to its FX team, with Mr. Myers looking to fill the void created by the loss of both Rundle and Plattner. Mr. Myers joins GKFX from OANDA Europe, having worked as its VP of Sales for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and the Americas.

Wednesday, September 14

Jane Hamilton, IHS Markit

IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a comprehensive provider of information, Analytics and financial markets solutions, appointed Jane Hamilton as the newest component of its foreign exchange (FX) business development team. In her new role at IHS Markit, Ms. Hamilton will work as its Managing Director of Business Development for FX. In this capacity she will be tasked with expanding Markit’s suite of FX services and software, which includes its recently launched services for trade affirmation, managing FX options, clearing, and regulatory reporting.

Thursday, September 15

Kristin Peck, Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters on-boarded Kristin Peck to the company’s board of directors last week. Peck previously worked as Executive Vice President and President of U.S. Operations at Zoetis, a NYSE-listed global leader in the discovery, development, manufacture and commercialization of animal health medicines and vaccines that was spun off by Pfizer in 2013.

Niamh de Niese, BNY Mellon

Last week, BNY Mellon (NYSE:BNY) appointed Niamh De Niese to help steer its technology incubator for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), following the recent opening of an innovation center this past October. BNY’s EMEA Innovation Centre opened almost one year ago, having since helped aggregate and bring together a wide range of fintech groups, including technology start-ups, developers, industry experts, and researchers with the collective goal of working with clients on developing new products and services.

Tristan Laurencin, Societe Generale

Societe Generale experienced a shakeup in its leveraged loan trading unit following the departure of Tristan Laurencin, the group’s acting head – a replacement has already been selected, with the lender opting to elevate Benoit Blanchard last week. Mr. Laurencin originally joined Societe Generale back in 2013, having worked for the entire duration of his time at the bank as its Head of Leveraged Loans Trading in London. Prior to joining Societe Generale, he also held multiple roles at RBS and as a Loans Trader, EPIC Private Equity as a Portfolio Manager.

Friday, September 16

Cengiz Belentepe, Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered Plc made a new appointment to its commodities team, securing the services of veteran banker Cengiz Belentepe, who lands at the lender as its newest Global Head of Commodities and Financial Markets. In his new role Mr. Belentepe will be based out of the group’s Singapore branch, reporting to Jonathan Paul, Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Financial Markets. The move is the latest hire at Standard Chartered that has seen a flow of talent into Asia from Europe, namely the UK, which has suffered an exodus of personnel in recent months.

Matthew Pass and Alex Caridia, RBC

The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) shuffled some of its senior personnel, with veteran banker Matthew Pass parting ways with the group after a nearly six year tenure – in addition, Alex Caridia has also moved to RBC’s Toronto branch, the latest outgoing executive in the banking sector in Europe. Mr. Pass originally joined the Canadian lender in 2010, having worked as the Head of European FIG DCM at RBC Capital Markets. During his time with RBC, he focused on driving the bank’s strategy to developing a full-scale debt advisory platform for its core financial institution client base.