The 2015 Tech 50: Lars Seier Christensen and Kim Fournais

The co-CEOs of Saxo Bank climb to No. 39 on this year’s Tech 50 ranking.

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< The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge

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39
Lars Seier Christensen and Kim Fournais
Co–Chief Executive Officers
Saxo Bank
Last year: 41

In 2014, for the second year in a row, Saxo Bank doubled its net profit, this time to 381 million Danish kroner ($56.7 million). That’s strong vindication for the strategic shift that founders and co-CEOs Lars Seier Christensen, 52, and Kim Fournais, 49, made three years ago. The business, a pioneering online brokerage at its start in 1992, converted to a bank in 2001. After it diversified into real estate and asset management with poor results, the two leaders in 2012 refocused their energies on trading innovation. Ahead of most financial institutions, Hellerup, Denmark–based Saxo embraced HTML5, a cross-platform programming language that is at the heart of SaxoTraderGO, a system introduced in May for multi-asset-class trading on any device, desktop or mobile. Touted as “the foundation of the trading platform of the future,” SaxoTraderGO is accompanied by OpenAPI, an application programming interface that will be available to white-label users of Saxo technology as well as external developers later this year. “We believe other banks will adopt this methodology quickly, as it is a way of future-proofing and keeping cost down,” says Christensen. “Unless the incumbents keep up with the pace of innovation and continue to improve the client experience, disruptive forces will seek to fill the void.” One of Saxo’s premier white-label customers, Citi, said in May that it is selling off part of its foreign exchange business. As a result, Saxo is taking on Asia-Pacific clients of CitiFX Pro, who Christensen says will be offered “investment diversification possibilities via our multiasset, cross-collateralized, single-account offering,” not to mention SaxoTraderGO.

See the full story, “The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge.”


The 2015 Tech 50

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1. Jeffrey Sprecher
Intercontinental Exchange

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2. Catherine Bessant
Bank of America Corp.

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3. Phupinder Gill
CME Group

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4. Lance Uggla
Markit

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5. Robert Goldstein
BlackRock

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6. Shawn Edwards &
Vlad Kliatchko
Bloomberg

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7. R. Martin Chavez
Goldman Sachs Group

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8. Deborah Hopkins
Citi Ventures

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9. Stephen Neff
Fidelity Investments

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10. Adena Friedman
Nasdaq OMX Group

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11. David Craig
Thomson Reuters

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12. Daniel Coleman
KCG Holdings

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13. Michael Spencer
ICAP

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14. Michael Bodson
Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.

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15. Charles Li
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing

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16. Chris Concannon
BATS Global Markets

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17. Christopher Perretta
State Street Corp.

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18. Antoine Shagoury
London Stock Exchange Group

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19. Kevin Rhein
Wells Fargo & Co.

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20. Neil Katz
D.E. Shaw & Co.

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21. Lee Olesky
Tradeweb Markets

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22. Richard McVey
MarketAxess Holdings

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23. Seth Merrin
Liquidnet Holdings

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24. Robert Alexander
Capital One Financial Corp.

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25. Frank Bisignano
First Data Corp.

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26. John Marcante
Vanguard Group

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27. Joseph Squeri
Citadel

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28. Lou Eccleston
TMX Group

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29. Claude Honegger
Credit Suisse

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30. Chris Corrado
MSCI

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31. David Gledhill
DBS Bank

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32. John Bates
Software AG

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33. Michael Cooper
BT Radianz

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34. Gary Scholten
Principal Financial Group

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35. Sunil Hirani
trueEX Group

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36. Hauke Stars
Deutsche BÖrse

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37. Brian Conlon
First Derivatives

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38. Jim Minnick
eVestment

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39. Lars Seier Christensen & Kim Fournais

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40. Tyler Kim
MaplesFS

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41. Jim McGuire
Charles Schwab Corp.

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42. Steven O’Hanlon
Numerix

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43. Sebastián Ceria
Axioma

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44. Yasuki Okai
NRI Holdings America

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45. Stephane Dubois
Xignite

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46. Mazy Dar
OpenFin

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47. Brian Sentance
Xenomorph Software

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48. Mas Nakachi
OpenGamma

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49. John Lehner
BNY Mellon Technology Solutions Group

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50. Jock Percy
Perseus


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