Axyon AI Names Frank Abbenhuis Chief Commercial Officer

Axyon AI, a provider of artificial intelligence (AI) for capital markets, has named Frank Abbenhuis as chief commercial officer with responsibility to oversee the company’s expansion from Modena, Italy, to London and drive client development. Axyon AI products can solve problems such as anticipating the market impact of economic events to suggesting future syndicated loans that could interest firms. Abbenhuis brings almost a decade of financial experience to Axyon AI having worked at ING as vice president of business development for wholesale banking advanced analytics, and formerly as a FinTech mentor for Startupbootcamp.

FlexTrade Hires to Build Sell-Side OMS Strength in EMEA

FlexTrade, a provider of cross-asset execution and order management systems (EOMS), has appointed Lak Loi and Vahid Shirani as co-heads of sell-side OMS business development for the EMEA region.

Both Loi and Shirani come to FlexTrade with more than 25 years of combined experience in equities and derivatives trading technology. Since 1997, Loi has worked in London and on Wall Street as an equity trading systems consultant with investment firms such as HSBC, Santander, and Barclays, and technology providers Bloomberg and Fidessa. Shirani joins FlexTrade after more than eight years working with Fidessa in various roles across its equity and derivatives trading platforms.

Ascent RegTech Hires New CEO

Ascent RegTech on April 15 announced the hiring of Arbela Takhsh as Chief Operating Officer. Arbela has held various engineering and operational leadership roles at Motorola, Google, Comcast, and most recently as Senior Vice President of Operations Excellence, Quality, and Data Analytics & Business Intelligence at Gogo. The Ascent team has grown rapidly since the company’s inception in 2015, and following a successful $6 million Series A round in 2018. Within the past year, the team has grown to over 35 full-time employees, and clients/relationships now include ING, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Wells Fargo Accelerator and others.

DTCC Adds Three New Members to Board of Directors

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a provider of post-trade infrastructure for the global financial services industry, on April 9, 2019 announced the election of three new members to DTCC’s Board of Directors during the firm’s Annual Shareholders Meeting. The new directors are Kieran Hanrahan from JP Morgan Chase’s Corporate and Investment Bank, Graeme McEvoy from Morgan Stanley, and Joseph Noto from Barclays.

Alex Ceponkus Joins Exiger

Global regulatory and financial crime, risk and compliance company Exiger has named Alex Ceponkus as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Software Engineering of Exiger Tech, based in Toronto. Ceponkus’ new role will be to drive innovation, scale and delivery of Exiger’s technology solutions and increase the reach of its product suite (including its AI-powered RegTech solutions, DDIQ and Insight 3PM). Ceponkus brings with him two decades of experience in software engineering, and is known for scaling international engineering organizations during periods of rapid growth. He was formerly Senior Manager at Blackberry and prior to that, Engineering Leader for BBM via Canada’s CMW Social Networking.

SmartStream Technologies Forms New Team

Transaction Lifecycle Management solutions provider SmartStream this week announced a new strategic focus in line with the new FSA (now PRA) rules governing liquidity management for UK and foreign branches. In response to the new regulations, SmartStream has appointed Nadeem Shamim to lead cash and liquidity management solutions globally. Prior to SmartStream, Shamim was Managing Director responsible for corporate treasury solutions at Standard Chartered Bank. Previous to this he was at JP Morgan as Head of Financial Institutions Group EMEA, Treasury Services, focusing on regulations and cash management. Shamim will report into Vincent Kilcoyne, Head of Product Management at SmartStream.

GoldenSource Names Ramesh Pulandaran as Head of Sales for Asia-Pacific

GoldenSource has named Ramesh Pulandaran as head of sales for Asia-Pacific reporting to managing director of global sales and client operations Neill Vanlint. Pulandaran is based in Singapore and will help GoldenSource grow its customer base in the Asia-Pacific region.

Pulandaran has more than 18 years of experience in financial services, including stints at SunGard and Broadridge Financial Solutions. His experience spans broking, trading, operations and sales.

John Eley, CEO of GoldenSource, says the Asia-Pacific region is offering opportunities for the company as banks face more stringent stress tests and the challenge of implementing Fundamental Review of the Trading Book regulations; exchanges look to invest in data management platforms to underpin operations; and funds implement cloud-based data warehouse solutions to manage data centrally and address portfolio holdings disclosure and product dashboard requirements under the MySuper and Stronger Super regimes.

Confluence Names Joe Bree as Senior Global Strategic Account Executive

Confluence, a provider of investment data management automation for regulatory, financial and investor reporting, has named Joe Bree as senior global strategic account executive. He has responsibility for expanding Confluence’s global relationships with fund and asset management clients, as well as other service providers and intermediaries. He will also work with the broader Confluence sales team to coordinate, streamline and enhance direct sales plans and strategies for the firm’s largest global accounts.

Bree joins Confluence with 20 years of experience in financial services, most recently serving as senior vice president of business development at US Bank Global Fund Services. In this role, he drove new business revenue for registered investment product services including fund administration, fund accounting, transfer agent, distribution, custody and securities lending. Previously, Bree was chief financial officer and executive vice president at US Bancorp Fund Services. At Confluence, Bree reports to Domenic Ionadi, who was recently promoted to vice president, North America business development.

RIMES Appoints Andrew Barnett as New Global Head of Product Strategy

RIMES Technologies, a provider of managed data and RegTech services for the financial sector, has appointed Andrew Barnett as its Global Head of Product Strategy. Barnett will bring to bear his extensive experience in both the end-user and vendor sides of the market to help RIMES continue its growth trajectory. Barnett has previously held a range of product, sales and data roles for companies including Charles River Development, Aviva/Friends Life Investments and IHS Markit/Cadis. Andrew joins RIMES from Legal & General Investment Management, where he held the position of Chief Data Officer.

Dash Names Venu Palaparthi Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Regulatory Affairs

Dash Financial Technologies, a capital markets technology and execution provider, has named Venu Palaparthi as chief compliance officer and head of regulatory affairs. Palaparthi will be directing Dash’s compliance strategy with regards to internal regulatory policies and compliance with government regulations. Peter Maragos, co-founder and CEO of Dash Technologies, says Palaparthi’s experience will be key, particularly with respect to the enhanced Rule 606 transparency reporting requirements coming into effect in May.