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The 2014 Tech 50: Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen


41
Kim Fournais &
Lars Seier Christensen
Co–Chief Executive Officers
Saxo Bank

In 2008, Saxo Bank co-CEOs Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen stepped away from day-to-day oversight. The online brokerage they had founded in 1992 and converted to a bank in 2001 proceeded to diversify into real estate and asset management, and profitability suffered. Taking back the reins in December 2012, Fournais, now 48, and Christensen, 51, refocused attention on the business they know best — trading, and its underlying technology — and in 2013 doubled net profits, to 162.2 million Danish kroner ($29.6 million). The Hellerup, Denmark–based bank, originally and best known as a pioneer in electronic foreign exchange trading, with customers today in 180 countries, offers a staggering array of not only currency pairs but also stocks, bonds, options, futures and more. “If financial institutions don’t deliver what people want, they’ll find it elsewhere,” asserts Fournais. “The future of distribution is very much the Internet,” allowing clients “to do their business anywhere, anytime,” especially on mobile devices. There is a growing institutional side of Saxo. It supplies technology to Citi and 126 other firms on a wholesale, or “white label,” basis and offers prime brokerage and other trading and reporting solutions for the buy side. “If you’re an investment manager and come with $20 million, we’ll do anything for you,” Fournais says.







The 2014 Tech 50
Click name to view ranking profile.
1
1
3
4
5
Thomas Secunda
Bloomberg
Jeffrey Sprecher
Intercontinental Exchange
Catherine Bessant
Bank of America Corp.
Stephen Neff
Fidelity Investments
Lance Uggla
Markit
6
7
8
9
10
Robert Goldstein
BlackRock
David Craig
Thomson Reuters
Phupinder Gill
CME Group
Anna Ewing
NASDAQ
OMX Group
R. Martin Chavez
Goldman Sachs Group
11
12
13
14
15
Deborah Hopkins
Citi Ventures
Dan Mathisson
Credit Suisse
Daniel Coleman
KCG Holdings
Michael Spencer
ICAP
Michael Bodson
Depository Trust &
Clearing Corp.
16
17
18
19
20
Joe Ratterman
BATS Global Markets
Dominique Cerutti
Euronext
Ron Levi
GFI Group
Gaurav Suri
D.E. Shaw Group
Charles Li
Hong Kong
Exchanges and
Clearing
21
22
23
24
25
Lou Eccleston
S&P Capital IQ
Lee Olesky
Tradeweb Markets
Richard McVey
MarketAxess Holdings
Seth Merrin
Liquidnet Holdings
Antoine
Shagoury

London Stock
Exchange Group
26
27
28
29
30
Christopher
Perretta

State Street Corp.
Kevin Rhein
Wells Fargo & Co.
Peter Carr
Morgan Stanley
Hauke Stars
Deutsche Börse
Robert Alexander
Capital One
Financial Corp.
31
32
33
34
35
David Gershon
SuperDerivatives
Chris Corrado
MSCI
Joseph Squeri
Citadel
Tanuja Randery
BT Global Services
John Bates
Software AG
36
37
38
39
40
Gary Scholten
Principal Financial Group
David Gledhill
DBS Bank
Simon Garland
Kx Systems
Cristóbal Conde
FinTech Innovation Lab
Jeff Parker
EidoSearch
41
42
43
44
45
Kim Fournais &
Lars Seier Christensen

Saxo Bank
Kenneth Marlin
Marlin & Associates
Tyler Kim
MaplesFS
Jim McGuire
Charles Schwab Corp.
Jim Minnick
eVestment
46
47
48
49
50
Steven O’Hanlon
Numerix
Sebastián Ceria
Axioma
Yasuki Okai
Nomura Research Institute
Niki Beattie
Market Structure Partners
Mas Nakachi
OpenGamma

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