Edwin Marcial
No. 4
Chief Technology Officer
IntercontinentalExchange
Transaction speed and technology innovation both preoccupy Edwin Marcial, CTO of IntercontinentalExchange since its formation in 2000. Marcial, who began working with ICE founder and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher in 1996 at predecessor company Continental Power Exchange, says the commodity, futures and credit market operator’s average trade time has declined to about 750 microseconds from 0.5 seconds in 2004. The 44-year-old senior vice president is quick to add that speed is only part of the equation: Consistency and reliability are also essential. Atlanta-based ICE has augmented its top-line growth — revenue increased 16 percent in the first nine months of 2011, to $1 billion — with technology-driven acquisitions, including credit derivatives dealer and posttrade processor Creditex Group in 2008, derivatives platform developer YellowJacket Software in 2008 and options e-brokerage Ballista Securities in 2011. Marcial has devised a system bearing the YellowJacket name that enables complex options transactions via instant messaging, a medium favored by many traders. YellowJacket is programmed to translate a trader’s unique IM shorthand into order-book entries. “Now you can see a screen where the bids and offers are derived directly from the IMs,” says Marcial, who has a BS in computer science from the University of Florida’s College of Engineering.
