Chief Executive Officer
Direct Edge
[17]
For Direct Edge, the conversion from alternative trading system to full-fledged stock exchange in July 2010 was “an enormous undertaking,” says CEO William O’Brien. The Jersey City, New Jersey–based operation spent a year conforming to new regulatory requirements and switching to a new trading platform, even as volumes were rising above a billion shares a day. Today, Direct Edge, which is co-owned by Citadel Derivatives Group, Goldman Sachs Group, International Securities Exchange, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Knight Capital Group, is in exclusive company. With BATS Global Markets (see Joe Ratterman, No. 7), Direct Edge vies for third place among U.S. exchanges; both have market shares of about 10 percent. Recent operational highlights include Connect Edge, which enables customers to link to several leading dark pools as well as to other exchanges without requiring individual telecommunications connections. O’Brien, 40, who was a senior executive at Nasdaq Stock Market before taking the helm at Direct Edge, a Knight Capital spin-off, in 2007, reinforced his technology team in April. Citing the “technological innovation and systemic integrity that are crucial to operating a successful registered stock exchange,” he named as chief information officer Saro Jahani, formerly CIO of the National Stock Exchange, while promoting Richard Hochron from head of software engineering to chief technology officer.
