Following the post-acquisition management shake-up at Interactive Data, former president of institutional sales Cort Williams has jumped ship to join data vendor rival SIX Telekurs as its new executive vice president for sales and business development in the Americas region. Williams, who has been with Interactive Data since 1996, will focus on direct and redistributor sales and third party relationships at the American subsidiary of the Swiss-based data vendor, SIX Telekurs USA.
In his new role, Williams will report directly to managing director of the subsidiary Barry Raskin, who is hopeful that his experience in the US data community will lend itself to SIX Telekurs’ strategic vision. “We have grown significantly in the last few years, and in order to continue at our anticipated growth rate we will continue to significantly invest in our financial information content, our technology, and most importantly, in our people,” says Raskin.
In his most recent role at Interactive Data Corporation, Williams led the vendor’s institutional sales and relationship management organisation, a role that followed previous initiatives to build and lead the company’s third party channel business and global major accounts organisation. Prior to joining Interactive Data, he held sales and marketing management positions at Data Resources and at a subsidiary of US Trust Company of New York.
SIX Telekurs has added quite a few new hires to its US-based subsidiary this year, including Anthony Fiori as manager of data acquisition, Renee Potter as vice president of business strategy and corporate development and Charles Roy as vice president and head of finance earlier this year. Reference Data Review spoke to ex-manager of market data services at Franklin Templeton Fiori about his career highlights, what he hopes to bring to his new role and the thorny issue of intellectual property rights for proprietary data within the vendor community earlier this year.
Williams indicates that one of the benefits of his new employer is its “stable ownership”, perhaps a reference to the ongoing restructuring at his previous employer, following its acquisition by venture capitalists Silver Lake and Warburg Pincus last year. “I’m looking forward to once again working in an environment of fast paced growth. SIX Telekurs is a solid company with stable ownership, and an 80 year history of providing high quality financial information and services. Their recent investments in expanding their content, products, and management team have made this an opportune time to be a part of their exciting growth story,” says Williams.
As for Interactive Data, a host of new faces have joined the ranks over the last few months, including ex-Instinet exec Alex Goor as chief information officer and ex-Thomson Financial exec Jay Nadler as COO, as well as new CEO and president Mason Slaine. As it puts the new management lineup in place, the company is undergoing a technology revamp, kicking off in its Real-time business.
