

In the 19 years since Sebastián Ceria founded Axioma, a software company focused on the buy side, changes in financial markets and information technology have accelerated. Ceria has built the New York–based business to keep pace as risk and portfolio management decisions increasingly require on-demand analytics that can't be pushed back till the end of the day or overnight. Axioma, which started out as a consulting firm in mathematical modeling and began selling portfolio optimization software in 2001, entered the risk systems business in 2006. By 2013 it was touting its multi-asset class, enterprise-wide Axioma Risk as "a quantum leap forward," combining simulation- and factor-based approaches for portfolio and risk managers on a common platform for the first time. Stressing innovation processes that invite customer collaboration, along with agile systems development and a heavy reliance on the capacity and flexibility of cloud computing, Axioma has grown to more than 240 employees and about 200 asset management, pension fund, and hedge fund clients worldwide. "We could not have accomplished what we did without the cloud," says Ceria, 52, who completed a Ph.D. in operations at Carnegie Mellon University and earned an undergraduate degree in applied math at the University of Buenos Aires.
![]() 2. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp. ![]() 3. Robert Goldstein BlackRock ![]() 4. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange ![]() 5. Lance Uggla IHS Markit |
![]() 6. Shawn Edwards & Vlad Kliatchko Bloomberg ![]() 7. David Craig Thomson Reuters ![]() 8. Michael Spencer NEX Group ![]() 9. Don Callahan Citigroup ![]() 10. Elisha Wiesel Goldman Sachs Group |
![]() 11. Michael Bodson Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. ![]() 12. Terrence Duffy CME Group ![]() 13. Charles Li Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing ![]() 14. Sean Belka Fidelity Investments ![]() 15. Chris Concannon CBOE Holdings |
![]() 16. Guy Chiarello First Data Corp. ![]() 17. Steven Lieblich Citadel ![]() 18. David Rutter R3CEV ![]() 19. Blythe Masters Digital Asset Holdings ![]() 20. Alfred Spector Two Sigma Investments |
![]() 21. Neil Katz D.E. Shaw Group ![]() 22. Lee Olesky Tradeweb Markets ![]() 23. Richard McVey MarketAxess Holdings ![]() 24. David Gledhill DBS Bank ![]() 25. Seth Merrin Liquidnet Holdings |
![]() 26. Antoine Shagoury State Street Corp. ![]() 27. Peter Brown & Robert Mercer Renaissance Technologies ![]() 28. Lou Eccleston TMX Group ![]() 29. Peter Cherecwich Northern Trust Corp. ![]() 30. Mike Chinn S&P Global Market Intelligence |
![]() 31. Chris Corrado London Stock Exchange Group ![]() 32. Neal Pawar AQR Capital Management ![]() 33. Gary Norcross Fidelity National Information Services ![]() 34. Steven O'Hanlon Numerix ![]() 35. Sebastián Ceria Axioma |
![]() 36. Brian Conlon First Derivatives and Kx Systems ![]() 37. Tyler Kim MaplesFS ![]() 38. Michael Cooper BT Radianz ![]() 39. Robert Schifellite Broadridge Financial Solutions ![]() 40. Jim Minnick eVestment |