The 2013 Tech 50: Dan Mathisson

In 2001, shortly after D.E. Shaw Group statistical arbitrage trader Dan Mathisson joined Credit Suisse in New York, he launched Credit Suisse Advanced Execution Services, which quickly established itself as Wall Street’s premier algorithmic trading shop. Mathisson’s greater accomplishment, in an intensely competitive environment where advantages can disappear in a fraction of a second, has been in keeping Credit Suisse on top, through continuous technological improvement and product innovation within AES and, since early last year, in his broader role as head of U.S. equities execution and trading. Now looking across more desks, Mathisson is identifying efficiencies and synergies among AES, program trading and block trading, while taking care not to breach any “Chinese walls” of confidentiality. “We’ve taken a stat arb approach to block trading,” notes the 43-year-old, “which we think is different from what anyone else is doing,” and he sees significant upside in quantitative hedge-fund-like techniques. Credit Suisse boasted an all-time-high share of 13.8 percent of U.S. equity volume in the first quarter.