< The 2016 Tech 50

As a systematic investor, David Harding has been relying on simulations to research investment strategies since the 1980s. “Back in the old days, we were restricted by the speed of computing,” says Harding, 54, who co-founded pioneering commodities trading adviser Adam, Harding & Lueck (AHL) in 1987. “It was a continual cycle of finding a way to use the faster computers to do a more complicated bit of simulation and then waiting for the new computers to arrive.” After selling AHL in 1996 to what is now Man Group, Harding started London-based Winton Capital Management the following year with $2 million. Today the 450-person firm manages $34.5 billion, and computing power is no longer an issue. For Harding, a self-described “science geek” who studied theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge, innovation centers on “the intellectual technology development of different statistical ways of looking at data, different ways of visualizing data and the inferences from data.” Winton, which has offices in a half dozen countries, recently opened a six-person outpost in San Francisco to tap into Silicon Valley’s data-science talent pool. The firm has been supporting the fintech revolution. In 2014 it began working with Cyber London, Europe’s first cybersecurity incubator. Winton cosponsors Cyber London and is currently hosting its third cohort of start-ups at the firm’s Hammersmith headquarters. Last year Harding launched Winton Ventures to invest the firm’s own money in young data-science companies, particularly those working with new types of data from nontraditional sources. “We attempt to use the scientific method broadly to evaluate the relationship between things that affect the prices of things, what we call explanatory variables, potential influences on price and the statistical likelihood of price change,” Harding says. “To a greater or lesser extent, that’s what all systematic investors are doing.”

 
The 2016 Tech 50

1. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp. 2. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange 3. Lance Uggla Markit 4. Phupinder Gill CME Group Open Architecture and Next-Gen Technology Help Support Model Delivery Sponsored by BlackRock April 24, 2025 5. Shawn Edwards and Vlad Kliatchko Bloomberg 6. R. Martin Chavez Goldman Sachs Group

7. Robert Goldstein BlackRock 8. Adena Friedman Nasdaq 9. Deborah Hopkins Citi Ventures 10. Daniel Coleman KCG Holdings 11. Stephen Neff Fidelity Investments 12. David Craig Thomson Reuters

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. Blythe Masters Digital Asset Holdings 18. David Rutter R3CEV

19. Neil Katz D.E. Shaw & Co. 20. Lee Olesky Tradeweb Markets 21. Richard McVey MarketAxess Holdings 22. Seth Merrin Liquidnet Holdings 23. Robert Alexander Capital One Financial Corp. 24. Brad Katsuyama IEX Group

25. Antoine Shagoury State Street Corp. 26. David Gledhill DBS Bank 27. Lou Eccleston TMX Group 28. Andreas Preuss Deutsche BÖrse 29. Dan Schulman PayPal Holdings 30. Scott Dillon Wells Fargo & Co.

31. Mike Chinn S&P Global Market Intelligence 32. Craig Donohue Options Clearing Corp. 33. Gary Norcross Fidelity National Information Services 34. Steven O'Hanlon Numerix 35. Sebastián Ceria Axioma 36. Michael Cooper BT Radianz

37. Tyler Kim MaplesFS 38. Neal Pawar AQR Capital Management 39. David Harding Winton Capital Management 40. Chris Corrado London Stock Exchange Group 41. Brian Conlon First Derivatives 42. Jim Minnick eVestment

43. Stephane Dubois Xignite 44. Mazy Dar OpenFin 45. Yasuki Okai NRI Holdings America 46. Kim Fournais Saxo Bank 47. Jock Percy Perseus 48. Robert Schifellite Broadridge Financial Solutions

49. Brian Sentance Xenomorph Software 50. Pieter van der Does Adyen