The 2017 Tech 40: David Craig

Peter Vasiliev

July 27, 2017

< The 2017 Tech 40

7. David Craig

President,

Financial & Risk

Thomson Reuters

Last year: 12

The first-quarter revenue of Financial & Risk, the unit of Thomson Reuters headed by David Craig, rose 1 percent year-over-year, to $1.5 billion. Modest, yes, but to Craig it is a breakout from a flat 2016 and a cause for optimism. Organic growth was 2 percent, and the transactions segment, which includes Tradeweb Markets, jumped 4 percent. "It has taken four or five years for us to get to this place," Craig says, referring to an overhaul of his group's product lines and the early adoption of a platform-oriented strategy, which required investments in information technology and time to educate the marketplace. "There is now more confidence around the results and our ability to reinvest," the 47-year-old says. A former McKinsey & Co. partner, Craig joined the news and information company in London in 2007 as chief strategy officer; founded and became president of its governance, risk, and compliance business in 2010; and rose to president of Financial & Risk in 2012. Although platform strategies, which often engage customers or partners in developing innovations, have become commonplace, Thomson Reuters was ahead of the curve when it launched the Eikon desktop network and the Elektron trading infrastructure in 2010. A third major platform, Accelus, came out of Craig's GRC business in 2011 and was later renamed Risk Management Solutions. Meanwhile, the group eliminated about 600 of its 850 products in what Craig calls a "streamline and simplify" campaign. A regulatory technology play, Risk Management Solutions includes Org ID, "the market leader in KYC," or Know Your Customer, compliance services, Craig notes. With the acquisition this year of Avox and Clarient Global from Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., Org ID is managing more than 350,000 KYC records and data on 1.25 million legal entities worldwide. Another example of what Craig calls a "more selective" acquisition strategy is the January 2017 purchase of the REDI Holdings buy side–facing execution management system from a consortium of banks. On June 13, Thomson Reuters said it is working to integrate Eikon with the Symphony Communication Services messaging and collaboration platform, which has 200,000 licensed users in 170 companies, including 40 top asset managers and 25 of the largest global banks.

The 2017 Tech 40