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The 2016 Trading Technology 40: John Mackay (Mack) Gill

No. 18 John Mackay (Mack) Gill, Chief Executive Officer, MillenniumIT

18
John Mackay (Mack) Gill
Chief Executive Officer
MillenniumIT
Last year: 24

Stock exchanges in emerging markets are modernizing their technology — in some cases they are starting up — and that spells opportunity for MillenniumIT, the Sri Lanka–based London Stock Exchange Group subsidiary selling what is touted as the world’s fastest trading platform. In May, for example, Peruvian stock exchange Bolsa de Valores de Lima went live with MillenniumIT’s multiasset trading platform and smart order router. Demand has been running high in Latin America: MillenniumIT plans to go live with a similar upgrade on Argentina’s Caja de Valores later this year, according to CEO John Mackay (Mack) Gill, 46. Last July the Johannesburg Stock Exchange selected MillenniumIT to expand beyond equities into derivatives and fixed income. But Gill notes that in the developed world speed has become less of a focus as trading systems must adjust to regulatory requirements like those of Europe’s second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. “Even though [MiFID II] has been delayed, the big story in Europe has been the push from the buy side to get more support for block trading and more visibility” into liquidity opportunities, Gill says. Over the past year MillenniumIT has worked with the LSEG-affiliated Turquoise platform to develop new trading strategies for Turquoise Block Discovery, a system for large orders launched at the end of 2014. Regulatory reforms also place new burdens on clearinghouses to provide greater transparency, and here MillenniumIT’s posttrade technology comes into play. “We’re talking microsecond-level ability to process trades and manage portfolio risk through a clearing environment,” says Gill. “At the end of the day, that’s a sea change.” Longer-term, Gill says he’s “very bullish on the potential for smart contracts to be the killer app of the blockchain world. They will transform many aspects of how we operate our markets, especially in the posttrade space.”

2016 Trading Technology 40

1. Raymond Tierney III
Bloomberg
2. Richard Prager
BlackRock
3. Chris Isaacson
BATS Global Markets
4. Jonathan Ross
KCG Holdings
5. Bradley Peterson
Nasdaq
6. Brad Levy
Markit
7. Dan Keegan
Citi
8. Ronald DePoalo
Fidelity Institutional
9. Raj Mahajan
Goldman Sachs Group
10. Ari Studnitzer
CME Group
11. Mayur Kapani
Intercontinental Exchange
12. Gerald O’Connell
CBOE Holdings
13. Nicholas Themelis
MarketAxess Holdings
14. Gil Mandelzis
EBS BrokerTec (ICAP)
15. Bill Chow and Richard Leung
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
16. Rob Park
IEX Group
17. Philip Weisberg
Thomson Reuters
18. John Mackay (Mack) Gill
MillenniumIT
19. Robert Cornish
International Securities Exchange
20. Paul Hamill
Citadel Securities
21. Eric Noll
Convergex
22. Tyler Moeller and Joshua Walsky
Broadway Technology
23. Rishi Nangalia
REDI Holdings
24. Veronica Augustsson
Cinnober Financial Technology
25. Alasdair Haynes
Aquis Exchange
26. Manoj Narang
Mana Partners
27. Gaurav Suri
Arcesium
28. Robert Sloan
S3 Partners
29. Anton Katz and Stephen Mock
AQR Capital Mgmt
30. Stu Taylor
Algomi
31. D. Keith Ross Jr.
PDQ Enterprises
32. Donal Byrne
Corvil
33. Alfred Eskandar
Portware
34. R. Cromwell Coulson
OTC Markets Group
35. Masayuki Hosaka
Rakuten
36. Peter Maragos and David Karat
Dash Financial
37. Amar Kuchinad
Electronifie
38. Jennifer Nayar
SR Labs
39. Dave Snowdon
Metamako
40. Dan Raju
Tradier

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