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The 2015 Tech 50: Mas Nakachi
The OpenGamma CEO jumps to No. 48 on this year’s Tech 50 ranking.
“Standard,” “open” and “transparent” are trending keywords in financial services and information technology alike. OpenGamma straddles those worlds as “the only open-source risk and analytics company in fintech,” boasts Mas Nakachi, the London-based company’s 41-year-old CEO. A nagging question for OpenGamma since its founding in 2009 — with backing from venture capital firms Accel Partners and FirstMark Capital, along with ICAP (see Michael Spencer, No. 13) and its Euclid Opportunities fund — has been how to profit from software that is built on openly accessible standards and targeted at an industry in the midst of “fundamental changes, a lot of them regulatory-driven,” as Nakachi puts it. OpenGamma may now be showing the way with a “focus on market structure and its needs for openness and transparency,” he says. “This is why we have been invited in to talk to regulators,” putting forward a margin calculation model for noncleared over-the-counter trades as part of a standard methodology being developed by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. It is a short leap from such industry-specific utilities to the blockchain, which is “open technology at its core,” Nakachi points out. He is watching the decentralized, cryptocurrency-associated ledger closely because “it is open-source, and the future of finance is decentralized systems” — a disruption to business models that he sees playing out over three to five years. Last October fintech investor and former ICAP executive Mark Beeston (No. 10 on the 2014 Trading Technology 40) became OpenGamma’s chairman, succeeding founder Kirk Wylie, now chief innovation officer. Also joining the board: former SunGard CEO and mentor to start-ups Cristóbal Conde (No. 39 on last year’s Tech 50 and an investor in OpenFin — see Mazy Dar, No. 46).
See the full story, “The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge.”
 1. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange  2. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp.  3. Phupinder Gill CME Group  4. Lance Uggla Markit  5. Robert Goldstein BlackRock |
 6. Shawn Edwards & Vlad Kliatchko Bloomberg  7. R. Martin Chavez Goldman Sachs Group  8. Deborah Hopkins Citi Ventures  9. Stephen Neff Fidelity Investments  10. Adena Friedman Nasdaq OMX Group |
 11. David Craig Thomson Reuters  12. Daniel Coleman KCG Holdings  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. Christopher Perretta State Street Corp.  18. Antoine Shagoury London Stock Exchange Group  19. Kevin Rhein Wells Fargo & Co.  20. Neil Katz D.E. Shaw & Co. |
 21. Lee Olesky Tradeweb Markets  22. Richard McVey MarketAxess Holdings  23. Seth Merrin Liquidnet Holdings  24. Robert Alexander Capital One Financial Corp.  25. Frank Bisignano First Data Corp. |
 26. John Marcante Vanguard Group  27. Joseph Squeri Citadel  28. Lou Eccleston TMX Group  29. Claude Honegger Credit Suisse  30. Chris Corrado MSCI |
 31. David Gledhill DBS Bank  32. John Bates Software AG  33. Michael Cooper BT Radianz  34. Gary Scholten Principal Financial Group  35. Sunil Hirani trueEX Group |
 36. Hauke Stars Deutsche BÖrse  37. Brian Conlon First Derivatives  38. Jim Minnick eVestment  39. Lars Seier Christensen & Kim Fournais  40. Tyler Kim MaplesFS |
 41. Jim McGuire Charles Schwab Corp.  42. Steven O'Hanlon Numerix  43. Sebastián Ceria Axioma  44. Yasuki Okai NRI Holdings America  45. Stephane Dubois Xignite |
 46. Mazy Dar OpenFin  47. Brian Sentance Xenomorph Software  48. Mas Nakachi OpenGamma  49. John Lehner BNY Mellon Technology Solutions Group  50. Jock Percy Perseus |