The 2016 Trading Technology 40: Raymond Tierney III

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Raymond
Tierney III
Global Head of Trading Solutions
Bloomberg
Last year: 3

Bloomberg Trading Solutions grew revenue 10 percent in 2015. That’s a strong showing for a mature information technology enterprise and gratifying for Raymond Tierney III in that it was his first year as global head of the group responsible for Bloomberg’s multiasset, buy- and sell-side order management systems. The increase was a few percentage points below the unit’s five-year compound annual growth rate, but Tierney, 56, is no less pleased. The deceleration reflected investments back into the business (“to enhance infrastructure and products,” he says) that he believes Bloomberg uniquely is willing to make for longer-term benefit. Trading Solutions is Tierney’s second assignment at Bloomberg, which he joined in 2010 after 16 years with Morgan Stanley and Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Through 2014 he was president and CEO of Bloomberg Tradebook. “Bloomberg was looking for someone who understood how electronic trading was evolving,” he says. On his watch the equity- and U.S.-centric agency brokerage had “diversified asset classes and broadened its reach globally.” Early last year Tierney got a call from the top — founder Michael Bloomberg and co-founder Thomas Secunda — to be a “change agent” for Trading Solutions, which consists of 600 people and is supported by 600 more in R&D. Tierney says he spent the first 100 days getting the lay of the land and interviewing some 200 clients about their priorities — transparency and integration were common themes — in keeping with his “philosophy of listening, understanding the problem and providing real solutions to clients.” Selling has become “more consultative and less product-pushing.” All efforts revolve around the Bloomberg Professional service, which reaches more than 325,000 terminal subscribers, and making client relationships stickier. “The goal is to deliver the best, most reliable order management systems on the planet,” Tierney says. “Anybody who knows me will tell you I hate coming in second.”

2016 Trading Technology 40