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The 2017 Trading Tech 40: Bill Chow and Richard Leung


16. Bill Chow & Richard Leung
Co-heads of Information Technology
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
Last year: 15

How critical is technology to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing? It is "one of our competitive edges," asserts HKEx co-head of information technology Bill Chow. Without "robust systems," he says, "it would be very hard to remain competitive. Many market participants have a lot of choices now. They will use other markets if we do not provide quality products supported by good infrastructure." Chow, 60, who also has the chief technology officer title and has been with HKEx since 1993, has partnered with co-head Richard Leung, 53, since 2011, when Leung joined the company after serving as Chi-X Global's CTO for three years.

They have delivered numerous system upgrades and supported the international growth championed by CEO Charles Li, including the 2012 acquisition of the London Metal Exchange and the launches of the Stock Connect trading links with Shanghai and Shenzhen that went live in 2014 and 2016, respectively. "We had to have the right technology, processes, and people to launch the Connect program," Leung says. It was not easy to link together markets that have "very different microstructures," he adds, but "we now have experience in operating the only international stock exchange that offers access to the mainland equity market." Among current priorities is "a new trading system for our securities market, scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter," Leung says. "We used open systems technology to give us the flexibility to add new functionality and increase capacity over the next decade."

The executives seek to strike a balance between the drive to innovate and the need to meet day-to-day business and operational requirements. "Innovation, efficiency, and reliability go together," Chow says. "We are committed to continuous introduction of new technology for delivery of new products and services while maintaining a very good track record in system availability."


The 2017 Trading Tech 40

1. Richard Prager
BlackRock
2. Chris Isaacson
Bats Global Markets
3. Bradley Peterson
Nasdaq
4. Brad Levy
MarkitSERV
5. Dan Keegan
Citi
6. Glenn Lesko
Bloomberg Tradebook
7. Bryan Durkin
CME Group
8. Mayur Kapani
Intercontinental Exchange
9. Mike Blum
KCG Holdings
10. Raj Mahajan
Goldman Sachs Group
11. Ronald DePoalo
Fidelity Institutional
12. Nick Themelis
MarketAxess Holdings
13. Jenny Knott
NEX Optimisation
14. Billy Hult
Tradeweb Markets
15. Rob Park
IEX Group
16. Bill Chow & Richard Leung
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
17. John Mackay (Mack) Gill
MillenniumIT
18. Paul Hamill
Citadel Securities
19. Eric Noll
Convergex
20. Veronica Augustsson
Cinnober Financial Technology
21. Tyler Moeller & Joshua Walsky
Broadway Technology
22. Alasdair Haynes
Aquis Exchange
23. Gaurav Suri
Arcesium
24. Manoj Narang
Mana Partners
25. Michael Chin & Neill Penney
Thomson Reuters
26. Robert Sloan
S3 Partners
27. Anton Katz & Stephen Mock
AQR Capital Management
28. Donal Byrne
Corvil
29. Stu Taylor
Algomi
30. Alfred Eskandar
Portware
31. Steven Randich
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
32. R. Cromwell Coulson
OTC Markets Group
33. Peter Maragos
Dash Financial
34. John Fawcett
Quantopian
35. Donald
Ross III
PDQ Enterprises
36. Jennifer Nayar
Vela Trading Technologies
37. Dan Raju
Tradier
38. Susan Estes
OpenDoor Trading
39. David Mercer
LMAX Exchange
40. Oki Matsumoto
Monex Group

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