This content is from: Portfolio
The 2016 Tech 50: David Harding
The CEO of Winton Capital Management makes his debut on the Tech 50 ranking at No. 39.


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.”
![]() 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 |