< The 2016 Tech 50

41
Brian Conlon
Chief Executive Officer
First Derivatives
Last Year: 37

For more than a decade and a half, starting in 1998, First Derivatives was a sales and services partner of Kx Systems, whose high-performance database software is widely deployed by Wall Street banks and others in the securities industry. In October 2014, First Derivatives upped its minority stake in Kx to 65 percent, and 13 months later First Derivatives CEO Brian Conlon assumed the same position at Kx, with an eye on growth opportunities not only in finance but in other sectors with a need for big-data analytics, and in the emerging Internet of Things. “We retained the Kx brand because we know the value and have always respected the philosophy and ethos” of Kx and its technology, says Conlon, 50, a former SunGard Data Systems consultant who founded Newry, Northern Ireland–based First Derivatives in 1996. “The Kx team has really embraced the fact that FD is ready to invest in the technology and bring it into many interesting and exciting areas.” Indeed, Conlon says sales in oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and utilities were instrumental in the 41 percent increase in revenue, to £117 million ($171 million), and 51 percent rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, to £23.3 million, in the fiscal year ended February 29, 2016. IEX Group (see Brad Katsuyama, No. 24) has used Kx’s kdb+ platform since its 2013 launch as an alternative trading system; the Securities and Exchange Commission became a customer last year; and in April, Thomson Reuters (see David Craig, No. 12) chose First Derivatives and Kx to power its Velocity Analytics streaming data service. First Derivatives unveiled its R&D division, FD Labs, in Ottawa last September. Teams there and in Dublin and Sydney are working on machine learning and robotics, and on what Conlon terms “an inhibitor to the propagation of blockchain”: the limited number of transactions that can be registered on the distributed ledger at a given time. “Because our software is focused around volume and velocity of data, we’re trying to come up with some interesting techniques,” Conlon says.

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The 2016 Tech 50

1. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp. 2. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange 3. Lance Uggla Markit Fireside Chat- The New Credit Playbook: Convergence, Liquidity, and Innovation in Institutional Portfolios Sponsored by Nuveen June 17, 2025 4. Phupinder Gill CME Group 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