Chief Operating Officer
GFI Group
[PNR]

Interdealer brokerages did not have much visibility as technology hotbeds, if they had any kind of public profile at all, before ICAP muscled its way to the top with aggressive investments in electronic platforms (see Michael Spencer, No. 4). But GFI Group — with £862 million ($1.39 billion) in annual revenue, roughly half of ICAP’s — was an earlier mover, depending heavily on in-house systems development and less on splashy acquisitions. “We have seen technology as very much part of our future since the Internet came into being, and we saw its potential as an integral part of the markets,” says COO Ron Levi, 48. Across equities, fixed income, foreign exchange and energy, GFI serves the transaction cycle from pre- to posttrade, applying trade-matching and order-routing solutions to one historically illiquid market after another. “You add technology to foster liquidity, which is what it’s all about,” says Levi, who joined New York–based GFI in 1993 from ICAP predecessor Garban. COO since 2006, Levi says the tech commitment from the top — himself, CEO Michael Gooch and president Colin Heffron — has been unequivocal, and the innovations emanating from a veteran development team, led since 2001 by Jerry Dobner, “differentiate us and add a major barrier to entry.”