Americas Head of Electronic Trading
Goldman Sachs Group
[PNR]
Goldman Sachs Group has a long history of leadership in electronic trading, a result of investments it makes in its own platforms as well as stakes it purchases in entities it considers to be innovative contributors to market structure. For instance, the firm became a co-owner of Direct Edge when Knight Capital Group spun it off in 2007, and Gregory Tusar, Goldman’s head of electronic trading in the Americas, took a seat on the alternative trading system’s board. Goldman invests “with a view toward promoting competition in the equity markets,” says Tusar, 41. Still an adviser to Direct Edge, which became an exchange last year (see William O’Brien, No. 19), Tusar at Goldman faces the challenges of trading in 69 venues at ever-increasing speeds. His group serves 6,000 users who log in daily and handles 120 million transactions a day. “Clients are asking for algorithms to trade markets like Canada and Brazil,” says Tusar, who describes his team as having “the feel of a software development company that operates like a broker-dealer.” He started in the business in 1992 at TLW Securities, rising to CEO by the time execution and clearing firm Spear, Leeds & Kellogg bought it in 1999. The following year, Goldman purchased SLK, where Tusar was a limited partner, for $7 billion.
