< The 2017 Tech 40

21. Neil Katz
Managing Director
D.E. Shaw Group
Last year: 19

Innovation is systematic within D.E. Shaw & Co., the $42 billion alternative-investment firm founded in 1988 by computer scientist and computational finance pioneer David Shaw. Rather than reacting to the latest trends in the IT world, D.E. Shaw relies on the continuous experimentation of its decentralized IT teams, whose good ideas may catch on across the firm. A few years ago, for example, a more efficient framework for quote distribution and market-data dissemination was developed by one group and eventually adopted by others, says managing director Neil Katz, 45, who has been with D.E. Shaw since his 1994 graduation from Stanford University. Katz, who earned degrees in electrical engineering and quantitative economics, manages a team of more than 250 technologists. They participate in hackathons, including an annual competition in India that exposes developers to technologies that might be useful in their regular work. There are also occasional hack weeks in New York, where people are encouraged to work on projects outside their regular priorities. "We've seen some real breakthroughs when people put aside their normal workflow and turn to whatever side projects interest them," Katz says.

 
The 2017 Tech 40

1. Adena Friedman NASDAQ 2. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp. 3. Robert Goldstein BlackRock 4. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange Advisors and Their Clients Call for New Asset Classes in Model Portfolios Sponsored by BlackRock May 6, 2025 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