This is a look at the equity industry's prominent hires, promotions and other notable happenings around Wall Street's trading community.
Nasdaq OMX Group's Eric Noll left to join ConvergEx Group as president and eventual CEO. Noll served as executive vice president of U.S. and U.K. transaction services for Nasdaq, which he joined in 2009.
Scott Barraclough joined Irvine, Calif.-based Ascendiant Capital Markets as head of institutional trading in the broker-dealers Highlands Ranch, Colo., office. Barraclough was previously a sales trader at D.A. Davidson in Denver for 10 years.
Peter Cocuzza joined Vandham Securities, a service disabled veteran owned brokerage, as director of business development. Cocuzza, a 30 year veteran of the trading markets, will be responsible for expanding and developing senior client relationships in both equities and fixed income. Previously, he was with Stone Toro Asset Management in Princeton, N.J., as a vice president of business development. Cocuzza has also been an equity trader at Oppenheimer Funds, where he spent nine years and at Mitchell Hutchins/PaineWebber, where he spent 20 years on both the buyside and sellside.
Fred Federspiel became chief executive officer at CyberKey Data Security in New York. The vendor uses encryption technology to help individuals and small businesses to secure their personal data. Federspiel was previously chief executive officer at Pipeline Trading, a dark pool operator that shut down shortly after being fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for revealing sensitive client trade data.
Jay Biancamano co-founded Hoyvin, a vendor which filters data and information in social media for traders. He is also the start-up's chief executive officer. Biancamano was a former marketing official at a number of electronic brokerages, including Liquidnet and Aritas. Hoyvin's other co-founder is John Halloran, a former technology executive at Liquidnet.
Chris Hempstead joined KCG Holdings, formerly Knight Capital Group, to head its exchange-traded funds sales team. Hempstead previously worked at WallachBeth Capital as director of ETF execution for about two years. He joined KCG following the recent departures of senior ETF team members Reginald Browne, Eric Lichtenstein and Darren Taube.
Patrick Scanlan joined Macquarie Capital USA as head of the New York-based firm's Chicago trading desk. Scanlan previously spent five years with J.P. Morgan Securities on its Chicago desk. Before that he spent 11 years with Bear Stearns, which was acquired by J.P. Morgan in 2008.
Chris Sexton joined Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. as a sales trader in the firms new Denver office. Sexton, a 20-year trading industry veteran, spent about five months this year as a financial advisor in Merrill Lynch's Greenwood Village, Colorado, branch. Before that, he spent nine years at research boutique Wedge Partners, in Greenwood Village, as a sales trader.
BTIG grabbed BTIG grabbed Thomas Smykowski from ConvergEx Group for its portfolio and exchange-traded funds desk. Smykowski was a managing director, as head of global portfolio and ETF trading at ConvergEx. He spent eight years there and created the firm's ETF group in 2011.
Adam Elegant joined Northern Trust bank and its broker-dealer unit in San Francisco as a registered representative. Elegant previously worked in a sales capacity at Goldman Sachs' execution and clearing group for 12 years.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. hired Reginald Browne for its ETF team. Browne, 45, helped make KCG, formerly known as Knight Capital Group Inc., the biggest lead market maker for ETFs on the New York Stock Exchange, backing more than a third of the funds listed there. He has a reputation for supporting innovation in the industry, helping smaller providers reach the market with new products since joining Knight four years ago.
