

Today many financial technologists have artificial intelligence in their toolbox. Not so in 2012, when Alfred Eskandar, formerly head of corporate strategy at buy-side trading platform company Liquidnet Holdings, joined New York–based Portware and set it apart with an AI component that raised the level of sophistication of its execution management system. As of November 2016, with the release of Portware Enterprise version 6.4, the "thinking EMS" offers real-time analytic and decision support enhancements that, according to the 43-year-old CEO, amount to "a virtual trading assistant" supporting complex, global strategies across multiple asset classes.
With more than $10 trillion in institutional assets running on its software, up from $3 trillion in 2012, Portware became part of FactSet Research Systems in an October 2015 acquisition. A year later FactSet bought CYMBA Technologies and Vermilion Software, U.K.-based providers of order management and client reporting systems, respectively. FactSet CEO Philip Snow says the company aims "to more holistically address the portfolio life cycle through both innovation and acquisition," and there is a clear implication that more moves are to come.
![]() 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 |