Howard Edelstein, who joined NYFIX as CEO in September, brought in four new executives last month to drive innovation and new product development at the firm.
In particular, Edelstein says he expects “some interesting” new twists to the firm’s crossing network, Millennium, and to its new indication of interest product. He also says there could be new ways to price IOIs, which have been a growth area for NYFIX since the product was introduced last summer.
Edelstein declined to give specifics on any of the enhancements, though he did expect the firm to make announcements around the end of the first quarter.
Edelstein, described as a tireless negotiator, comes to NYFIX with an interesting background. He is widely credited with putting together the joint venture between Thomson ESG and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. That joint venture created Omgeo, the trade settlement giant. He also restructured Radianz when he was president there and later engineered its sale to British Telecom.
Edelstein points out that entrepreneurial skills are typically the hallmark of small firms like NYFIX. But as these firms succeed, they can have difficulty growing and taking their business to the next level.
“You have to figure out a way of scaling the company, but still have the feeling of being an entrepreneurial culture,” Edelstein says. He characterized the new hires as managers who are entrepreneurial, “client-centric” and who know how to scale a company’s products. He has worked with all of them in the past at BT Radianz or Thomson Financial.
The new management hires are Brennan Carley, formerly of BT Radianz, who is chief strategy officer and global head of product operations; Robert Moitoso, formerly head of Thomson’s AutEx, who heads the FIX division; David Merrill, formerly with Moody’s KMV, who is global head of client operations; and Chris Walsh, founder and former CEO of software provider Radius Partners, who heads the firm’s order management division.
