Pricing and risk management vendor Sophis has poached Ian Evans from Thomson Reuters’ Enterprise division to head its new sales team in the Middle East. The competition in the risk management vendor community has been hotting up over the last couple of months, as regulators and investors scrutinise firms’ risk management practices more closely and vendors ramp up their solution offerings accordingly.
Evans is Sophis’ new sales director for the Middle East region and will continue to be based in Dubai, where has been located for the past 10 years. He will be responsible for new business development in the Middle East region, which includes key financial centres in Bahrain, Dubai and Doha.
In his previous role at Thomson Reuters Risk Management, Evans was business manager for the data vendor’s Enterprise Solutions, a role that he held for 10 years in the Middle Eastern region. He began his career as an IT manager responsible for implementing commodity trading systems, then undertook various roles with Tibco, Reuters and finally Thomson Reuters Risk Management.
Thomson Reuters is also busily working on extending its risk management ambitions under the helm of risk division global head Andrew White. The vendor has recently been working on the liquidity risk management space in order to help firms to meet the UK Financial Services Authority’s liquidity regime requirements. The loss of Evans may represent something of a blow to the division in the region, but for now it seems to be heavily focused on product development and keeping pace with regulatory change.
Sophis, on the other hand, is likely hoping that Evans’ experience in the region will give him added leverage when putting into practice its aggressive entry into the Middle Eastern markets. Sebastien Roussotte, chief operating officer of Sophis, says: “He has an exemplary record in the financial markets software sector as well as a long term background in the Middle East region. The combination of these two qualities makes Ian an excellent candidate for the job.”
The vendor has recently relocated to new offices in Dubai’s renowned International Financial Centre to accommodate its steadily expanding team, which has doubled in size over the past 12 months. The region’s sales and consulting teams are charged with growing the business and supporting current clients across the Middle East.
Subscribe to our newsletter
