big xyt, an independent provider of market data analytics, has hired Richard Hills as Head of Client Engagement. Working alongside Mark Montgomery, Head of Strategy and Business Development, Hills will help to drive client innovation using a partnership engagement model. He will be responsible for promoting client awareness of big xyt’s products and services, and help them to integrate big xyt’s technology into their daily workflow. Hills joins from Société Générale, where he launched and built the equities electronic trading business, going on to become Global Co-Head of Cash Equities Execution encompassing electronic, program trading and high touch execution.

Texas-based trade surveillance and market risk software platform provider Eventus Systems has hired Roger Chandler as Senior Sales Engineer for Europe, based in London. Reporting to Scott Schroeder, Eventus Global Head of Sales, Chandler will be responsible for servicing existing clients and driving the firm’s growth in the EMEA region. He was most recently Technology Sales Manager for Bloomberg out of London, responsible for EMEA enterprise technical sales for global multi-asset sell-side clients, prior to which he spent nearly 11 years at Fidessa. This is the third key hire for Eventus following its $10.5 million Series A funding round last month, with Eric Einfalt recently joining as Chief Strategy Officer and David Mitchell as Regional Sales Executive, North America, both out of Chicago.

IHS Markit has hired asset management technology expert Brett Schechterman as the Global Head of cross-asset class investment management platform thinkFolio. Schechterman will report to Senior Vice President and Head of Solutions Andrew Eisen. He was formerly Head of Fixed Income Platform Solutions at UBS Asset Management and has also held senior roles at Legal & General Investment Management America and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He joins He joined IHS Markit from Rimes, where he was North American Head of Product.

Sterling Trading Tech (STT) has appointed Tim Macek as the Director of Technical Operations and Infrastructure. Macek previously served in several senior management positions at UBS, where he led cross-functional teams of developers and IT specialists and oversaw all of UBS Asset Management’s trading technology and networking systems. He will assume day-to-day leadership of the technical operations team and will be responsible for deploying and managing the technical operations of all current and future STT technology.

Patrick Ludden becomes the latest senior hire to join the Kaizen team. Ludden will be a Regulatory Reporting SME, bringing with him over 25 years of extensive experience in finance, operations and technology functions. Previous to joining Kaizen, Ludden spent six years providing regulatory reporting expertise to HSBC Global Markets and prior to that, working on reporting implementation and control projects for major investment banks.

“Regulators have been clear that they are increasing their scrutiny of regulatory reporting data quality, so by increasing our pool of reporting experts we can continue to meet the increasing demand from our customers for high quality advice,” says Kaizen CEO Dario Crispini.

Tony Freeman, former Executive Director of Government Relations at DTCC, has left the company. A respected European regulatory expert, Freeman joined DTCC in April 2019 to focus on policy issues, and was heavily involved in the firm’s response to Brexit, as well as responsible for relationships with UK regulators and policy makers. He previously worked with Omgeo and JP Morgan Chase. His LinkedIn now describes him as a Consultant in the City. “Tony Freeman left DTCC to pursue new opportunities,” said a DTCC Spokesperson. “We thank Tony for his valuable contributions and wish him continued success in the future.”

Syniti, a global data solution provider, has named industry and region veteran Jules Beck as President for its Europe & Africa (EUAF) region, succeeding Clive Bellmore, who will assume the post of Chairman for Syniti EUAF. A known leader in the industry, Beck has led rapid growth of several software and services businesses, including Axon Solutions (acquired by HCL Technologies), HP Enterprise Global SAP business (merged with CSC to form DXC Technologies), and most recently ServiceNOW where he served as VP & GM, Customer Outcomes and Professional Services in EMEA.

Global Digital Finance (GDF), an industry body advocating and accelerating the adoption of digital assets, has partnered with Washington-based advisory and advocacy firm FS Vector and announced four new senior appointments to boost its global policy and regulatory affairs capability. John Beccia of FS Vector will now lead US Regulatory Affairs for GDF, while European public policy specialist Lavan Thasarathakumar of Thasa Consulting, who is also a consultant at GDF founding member Hogan Lovells, will take ownership of EMEA Regulatory Affairs. Malcolm Wright, Chief Compliance Officer of digital asset financial services and advisory company Diginex, has been elected Chair of the GDF member based Advisory Council. He is joined by Bryony Widdup, a Partner at DLA Piper, who will lead the Advisory Council Secretariat responsible for the GDF Code of Conduct.

Pan-European cash equities trading business Aquis Exchange has appointed well-known market commentator David Buik as a Consultant, starting March 2, 2020. Buik started work at Philip Hill Higginson Erlangers in the City of London and later worked for City Index Group, Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners, and most recently Core Spreads. “I am delighted to be joining Aquis Exchange at this juncture. Anyone who knows me will know of my adoration for the City of London, and I truly believe that Aquis has created an exciting, disruptive new way of trading that will change the way we deal in equities to the benefit of the shareholders,” he says.

Former JP Morgan executive Kamlesh Harry has joined ACA Compliance Group as Senior Principal Consultant heading up the firm’s ACA Aponix division (which focuses on cybersecurity, privacy, and risk). The group today released its new payment and fraud risk assessment (PFRA) offering, overseen by Harry, which is designed to help firms identify and remediate vulnerabilities within payment flows in order to reduce the risk of costly fraud issues.

“ACA Aponix strongly believes that a team built with extensive knowledge of payment fraud and other cyber risks will provide our clients with a unique, well-rounded approach to risk management,” said James Tedman, Partner at ACA Aponix. “Kamlesh will be instrumental in developing our PFRA offering and serving as an invaluable resource to our clients in helping them assess and protect their firm against payment fraud.”