The 2015 Tech 50: Lars Seier Christensen and Kim Fournais

< The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge

39
Lars Seier Christensen and Kim Fournais
Co–Chief Executive Officers
Saxo Bank
Last year: 41

In 2014, for the second year in a row, Saxo Bank doubled its net profit, this time to 381 million Danish kroner ($56.7 million). That’s strong vindication for the strategic shift that founders and co-CEOs Lars Seier Christensen, 52, and Kim Fournais, 49, made three years ago. The business, a pioneering online brokerage at its start in 1992, converted to a bank in 2001. After it diversified into real estate and asset management with poor results, the two leaders in 2012 refocused their energies on trading innovation. Ahead of most financial institutions, Hellerup, Denmark–based Saxo embraced HTML5, a cross-platform programming language that is at the heart of SaxoTraderGO, a system introduced in May for multi-asset-class trading on any device, desktop or mobile. Touted as “the foundation of the trading platform of the future,” SaxoTraderGO is accompanied by OpenAPI, an application programming interface that will be available to white-label users of Saxo technology as well as external developers later this year. “We believe other banks will adopt this methodology quickly, as it is a way of future-proofing and keeping cost down,” says Christensen. “Unless the incumbents keep up with the pace of innovation and continue to improve the client experience, disruptive forces will seek to fill the void.” One of Saxo’s premier white-label customers, Citi, said in May that it is selling off part of its foreign exchange business. As a result, Saxo is taking on Asia-Pacific clients of CitiFX Pro, who Christensen says will be offered “investment diversification possibilities via our multiasset, cross-collateralized, single-account offering,” not to mention SaxoTraderGO.

See the full story, “The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge.”

The 2015 Tech 50

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1. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange 2. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp. 3. Phupinder Gill CME Group 4. Lance Uggla Markit 5. Robert Goldstein BlackRock

6. Shawn Edwards & Vlad Kliatchko Bloomberg 7. R. Martin Chavez Goldman Sachs Group 8. Deborah Hopkins Citi Ventures 9. Stephen Neff Fidelity Investments 10. Adena Friedman Nasdaq OMX Group

11. David Craig Thomson Reuters 12. Daniel Coleman KCG Holdings 13. Michael Spencer ICAP 14. Michael Bodson Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. 15. Charles Li Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing

16. Chris Concannon BATS Global Markets 17. Christopher Perretta State Street Corp. 18. Antoine Shagoury London Stock Exchange Group 19. Kevin Rhein Wells Fargo & Co. 20. Neil Katz D.E. Shaw & Co.

21. Lee Olesky Tradeweb Markets 22. Richard McVey MarketAxess Holdings 23. Seth Merrin Liquidnet Holdings 24. Robert Alexander Capital One Financial Corp. 25. Frank Bisignano First Data Corp.

26. John Marcante Vanguard Group 27. Joseph Squeri Citadel 28. Lou Eccleston TMX Group 29. Claude Honegger Credit Suisse 30. Chris Corrado MSCI

31. David Gledhill DBS Bank 32. John Bates Software AG 33. Michael Cooper BT Radianz 34. Gary Scholten Principal Financial Group 35. Sunil Hirani trueEX Group

36. Hauke Stars Deutsche BÖrse 37. Brian Conlon First Derivatives 38. Jim Minnick eVestment 39. Lars Seier Christensen & Kim Fournais 40. Tyler Kim MaplesFS

41. Jim McGuire Charles Schwab Corp. 42. Steven O’Hanlon Numerix 43. Sebastián Ceria Axioma 44. Yasuki Okai NRI Holdings America 45. Stephane Dubois Xignite

46. Mazy Dar OpenFin 47. Brian Sentance Xenomorph Software 48. Mas Nakachi OpenGamma 49. John Lehner BNY Mellon Technology Solutions Group 50. Jock Percy Perseus