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16. Bill Chow & Richard Leung
Co-heads of Information Technology
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
Last year: 15

How critical is technology to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing? It is "one of our competitive edges," asserts HKEx co-head of information technology Bill Chow. Without "robust systems," he says, "it would be very hard to remain competitive. Many market participants have a lot of choices now. They will use other markets if we do not provide quality products supported by good infrastructure." Chow, 60, who also has the chief technology officer title and has been with HKEx since 1993, has partnered with co-head Richard Leung, 53, since 2011, when Leung joined the company after serving as Chi-X Global's CTO for three years.

They have delivered numerous system upgrades and supported the international growth championed by CEO Charles Li, including the 2012 acquisition of the London Metal Exchange and the launches of the Stock Connect trading links with Shanghai and Shenzhen that went live in 2014 and 2016, respectively. "We had to have the right technology, processes, and people to launch the Connect program," Leung says. It was not easy to link together markets that have "very different microstructures," he adds, but "we now have experience in operating the only international stock exchange that offers access to the mainland equity market." Among current priorities is "a new trading system for our securities market, scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter," Leung says. "We used open systems technology to give us the flexibility to add new functionality and increase capacity over the next decade."

The executives seek to strike a balance between the drive to innovate and the need to meet day-to-day business and operational requirements. "Innovation, efficiency, and reliability go together," Chow says. "We are committed to continuous introduction of new technology for delivery of new products and services while maintaining a very good track record in system availability."

 
The 2017 Trading Tech 40

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6. Glenn Lesko Bloomberg Tradebook 7. Bryan Durkin CME Group 8. Mayur Kapani Intercontinental Exchange 9. Mike Blum KCG Holdings 10. Raj Mahajan Goldman Sachs Group

11. Ronald DePoalo Fidelity Institutional 12. Nick Themelis MarketAxess Holdings 13. Jenny Knott NEX Optimisation 14. Billy Hult Tradeweb Markets 15. Rob Park IEX Group

16. Bill Chow & Richard Leung Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing 17. John Mackay (Mack) Gill MillenniumIT 18. Paul Hamill Citadel Securities 19. Eric Noll Convergex 20. Veronica Augustsson Cinnober Financial Technology

21. Tyler Moeller & Joshua Walsky Broadway Technology 22. Alasdair Haynes Aquis Exchange 23. Gaurav Suri Arcesium 24. Manoj Narang Mana Partners 25. Michael Chin & Neill Penney Thomson Reuters

26. Robert Sloan S3 Partners 27. Anton Katz & Stephen Mock AQR Capital Management 28. Donal Byrne Corvil 29. Stu Taylor Algomi 30. Alfred Eskandar Portware

31. Steven Randich Financial Industry Regulatory Authority 32. R. Cromwell Coulson OTC Markets Group 33. Peter Maragos Dash Financial 34. John Fawcett Quantopian 35. Donald Ross III PDQ Enterprises

36. Jennifer Nayar Vela Trading Technologies 37. Dan Raju Tradier 38. Susan Estes OpenDoor Trading 39. David Mercer LMAX Exchange 40. Oki Matsumoto Monex Group