NASDAQ OMX’s John Jacobs will retire after more than 30 years of leadership and service to the company. Effective January 2, 2015, Jacobs will retire from his position as executive vice president of global information services, comprising the company’s data products and index services businesses. He will stay with the exchange through 2015. The company has begun an internal and external search for his successor.
Jacobs joined the exchange in 1983 as a business analyst and served in a variety of roles over the years, including leading NASDAQ’s first IPO sales force and the company’s first customer service teams when NASDAQ was still part of the National Association of Securities Dealers. In 1999, he created and launched one of the first exchange traded funds (ETFs), the NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking StockSM. In 2001, he was named chief marketing officer and executive vice president of index services. Recently, under Jacobs’ leadership, the company’s global index business has grown to encompass multiple asset classes that support more than 7,000 products worth over $1 trillion in notional value.
BlueCrest Capital Management, a $27.1 billion European hedge fund, lost investment professional Leda Braga. Braga will leave to start her own business, taking almost a third of its assets. Braga, who oversaw computer-driven trading at London-based BlueCrest, said in a recent interview that she and BlueCrest management have been discussing a split “on and off” for some time.
KCG Group saw several executives depart recently amid Wall Street’s stagnant commission growth. Steve Bisgay, the firm’s chief financial officer, departed on September 12 – the most senior executive to leave. Marshall Nicholson, who co-ran the firm’s BondPoint debt market, and John Miesner, the head of sales for the Hotspot currency platform, have also gone, according to a KCG spokeswoman who spoke with Bloomberg.
Two Sigma Investments, another hedge fund saw Dave Weisberger depart. The $21 billion hedge-fund credits Weisberger with helping build its securities unit, including its wholesaling and market-making businesses. He was with Two Sigma for five years. Weisberger plans “to pursue outside opportunities,” the New York-based firm said in an e-mailed statement. Two Sigma started in 2009 its securities unit, a market maker for more than 8,000 securities.
Relatedly, the Two Sigma hired Simon Yates as its chief of its securities business. Prior to the hedge fund, Yates worked Citigroup as its head of equity derivatives.
