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The 2016 Tech 50: Michael Spencer

The ICAP CEO holds steady at No. 13 on this year’s Tech 50 ranking.

13
Michael Spencer
Chief Executive Officer
ICAP

Long before “fintech” became a buzzword, Michael Spencer was charting a course in that direction for the interdealer brokerage, now known as ICAP, that he founded in 1986. Following acquisitions in the early 2000s of e-trading platforms BrokerTec Global and EBS, which were combined last year into EBS BrokerTec, and a ramp-up in posttrade services and R&D investments, London-based ICAP has been redefining itself as a “fintech firm” and “the world’s leading multiproduct global electronic network for over-the-counter products and posttrade services,” says Spencer, 61. To cap it off, ICAP is awaiting regulatory approvals to transfer its voice and hybrid brokering businesses to Tullett Prebon, and plans to rebrand itself as NEX Group. “Our whole focus as a management team will be on these higher-growth, technology-focused businesses,” says the CEO, noting that 79 percent of £1.2 billion ($1.7 billion)-in-revenue ICAP’s operating profit comes from what will be NEX activities. Spencer has his executive team lined up, including CEOs Jenny Knott of Post Trade Risk and Information (PTRI), Gil Mandelzis of EBS BrokerTec, Per Sjöberg of derivatives risk mitigation platform TriOptima and Steve Gibson of venture investment arm Euclid Opportunities. The Euclid portfolio included hedge fund and prime brokerage data platform ENSO Financial Analytics until April, when ICAP bought it outright for the PTRI division. Also this year, Euclid purchased a stake in Digital Asset Holdings (see Blythe Masters, No. 17). “We are not trying to disrupt but are working with the industry,” Spencer says of ICAP’s “practical approach” to blockchain strategy. “PTRI completed a proof-of-technology test of distributed ledger in February, so we are well under way in understanding and experimenting with this technology.” Spencer believes there are countless opportunities to improve financial market efficiency through data and capital management, as TriOptima is demonstrating with its portfolio compression service and OpenGamma, a Euclid portfolio company, is doing with central counterparty margin optimization tools. In June, EBS BrokerTec announced a three-year, $65 million deal to provide next-generation technology for China Foreign Exchange Trade System’s fixed-income and currency execution services. Spencer describes the project as “a significant platform which will play a key role in the future of the renminbi.”

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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
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

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