< The 2017 Tech 40

17. Steven Lieblich
Chief Technology Officer
Citadel
Last year: PNR

In 1986, after earning a B.A. in economics from Columbia University, Steven Lieblich entered the IT training program at Morgan Stanley. He stayed with the investment bank for exactly 30 years and one week, rising to chief information officer and serving along the way as head of the equity technology group and the institutional securities group's technology division. That Wall Street pedigree explains why Citadel came calling last year, and in September, Lieblich joined the Chicago-based hedge fund firm as chief technology officer. "It was a great run," Lieblich says of the Morgan Stanley years, but his administrative and management responsibilities had taken him away from his first love: programming. Today at Citadel, the 52-year-old says he is working "hands on, in the weeds, on white boards, with the next generation of talented developers and engineers, and partnering with traders and portfolio managers who are as conversant in technology as any computer scientist. That goes for Ken too." That is a reference to Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of the $27 billion-in-assets Citadel, to whom Lieblich reports.

Lieblich says he is currently focused on a number of things, including big data, cloud computing, mobile computing, and security. "In the early days, leaders would say, 'Tech is really important to our businesses,' which later evolved to where we are today: 'Technology is the business,'" he says. "As excited as I was to get here last year, I am even more excited about what's ahead."

 
The 2017 Tech 40

1. Adena Friedman NASDAQ 2. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp. 3. Robert Goldstein BlackRock Sponsored Is the Market Really Sure About Its Direction? Sponsored by CME Group October 27, 2025 4. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange 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