< The 2017 Tech 40

14. Sean Belka
Director of Fidelity Labs
Fidelity Investments
Last year: PNR

Fidelity Investments chair and CEO Abigail Johnson caused a stir in May when, speaking at the ConsenSys blockchain conference in New York, she professed belief in digital currencies and noted that Fidelity's experimentation with Bitcoin and Ethereum mining had made the firm "a lot of money." That sets Fidelity apart from financial industry peers that perceive business potential not in Bitcoin, but rather in its underlying blockchain, or distributed-ledger technology. "We look at them both together and discretely," explains Sean Belka, senior vice president and director of Fidelity Labs, the money management giant's research and development arm. Founded in 1998 and headed by Belka for eight years, Fidelity Labs isn't in the business of dismissing or excluding possibilities. Its blockchain and cryptocurrency explorations are consistent with those it has made in recent years with the Apple Watch and Google Glass, and with augmented- and virtual-reality technologies like Aurasma and Oculus Rift. Each is a form of user interface, and "we want to know how it works," Belka, 54, says. Some of the R&D work may be too early and some may not pan out at all, "but that's all right," adds Belka, who has been with the firm more than 20 years. "Our goal is always to be where the customer is."

 
The 2017 Tech 40

1. Adena Friedman NASDAQ 2. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp. 3. Robert Goldstein BlackRock 4. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange Solana vs. Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: How Do They Compare? Sponsored by CME Group April 29, 2025 5. Lance Uggla IHS Markit

6. Shawn Edwards & Vlad Kliatchko Bloomberg 7. David Craig Thomson Reuters 8. Michael Spencer NEX Group 9. Don Callahan Citigroup 10. Elisha Wiesel Goldman Sachs Group

11. Michael Bodson Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. 12. Terrence Duffy CME Group 13. Charles Li Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing 14. Sean Belka Fidelity Investments 15. Chris Concannon CBOE Holdings

16. Guy Chiarello First Data Corp. 17. Steven Lieblich Citadel 18. David Rutter R3CEV 19. Blythe Masters Digital Asset Holdings 20. Alfred Spector Two Sigma Investments

21. Neil Katz D.E. Shaw Group 22. Lee Olesky Tradeweb Markets 23. Richard McVey MarketAxess Holdings 24. David Gledhill DBS Bank 25. Seth Merrin Liquidnet Holdings

26. Antoine Shagoury State Street Corp. 27. Peter Brown & Robert Mercer Renaissance Technologies 28. Lou Eccleston TMX Group 29. Peter Cherecwich Northern Trust Corp. 30. Mike Chinn S&P Global Market Intelligence

31. Chris Corrado London Stock Exchange Group 32. Neal Pawar AQR Capital Management 33. Gary Norcross Fidelity National Information Services 34. Steven O'Hanlon Numerix 35. Sebastián Ceria Axioma

36. Brian Conlon First Derivatives and Kx Systems 37. Tyler Kim MaplesFS 38. Michael Cooper BT Radianz 39. Robert Schifellite Broadridge Financial Solutions 40. Jim Minnick eVestment