ON THE MOVE: Vlad Khandros to Trumid; Instinet Adds Sales Traders

Vlad Khandros, one of the more visible and influential sell-side equities market structure and trading strategists, has left UBS after almost 10 years to join seven-year-old bond-trading platform Trumid, Insider reported, citing an anonymous source familiar with the situation. Khandros was Global Head of Market Structure & Liquidity Strategy and Global Co-Head of Principal Investments & Strategic Ventures, Global Markets for UBS. A spokesperson for Trumid confirmed the hire to Traders Magazine.

Instinet hired five execution sales traders from Wolfe Research Securities’ Institutional Services Trading Team, effective Jan. 4, as part of its previously announced Strategic Alliance with Wolfe Research

  • Matt Lahey will become Head of High Touch Sales Trading New York, reporting to Mark Turner and Heidi Fischer.  He was previously a Managing Director at Wolfe Research and served as the Desk Head in New York. Matt has 21 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Wolfe in 2012, Matt worked on the trading desks at Macquarie and Bear Stearns.
  • David Ramirez will join the High Touch Sales Trading New York desk, reporting to Lahey. He was a Director at Wolfe Research and served as the Execution Manager in New York. Dave joined Wolfe Research Securities in 2012 to build and launch the trading desk for single stock US equities. Dave has 23 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Wolfe, Dave worked on the trading desks at Friedman, Billings & Ramsey and Prudential Equities.
  • Pepper Riley will join the Boston Sales Trading team, reporting to Tim Love, and will also coordinate closely with the New York High Touch Sales Trading desk. He was a Director at Wolfe Research and served as the Desk Head in Boston. Pepper joined Wolfe in 2016. Pepper began his career in San Francisco at Montgomery Securities and, subsequently, Thomas Weisel Partners. He also co-managed the Piper Jaffray office for nine years and worked at Telsey Advisory Group.
  • Ryan Plaxsun will join the Portfolio Trading Sales Trading desk in New York, reporting to Bill O’Brien.  He was a Senior Vice President at Wolfe Research, based in New York. Ryan joined Wolfe in March 2017 after nine years on the trading desk at EvercoreISI. Ryan helped to build and launch Program Trading at Wolfe.
  • Chris Provenzano will join the High Touch Sales Trading New York desk, also reporting to Lahey.  He was a Vice President at Wolfe Research, based in New York. Chris joined Wolfe in 2016. Chris started his career in Wealth Management from Lenox Advisors. 

Spotex hired Paul Ainsworth as a managing director for global institutional sales. The hiring comes as the company is rolling out new, institutional liquidity streams, partnerships, and innovations to its FX ECN. Prior to joining Spotex, Ainsworth served for more than 15 years in key roles at a foreign exchange ECN as well as two leading FX banks. He most recently was Global Head of Sales at Euronext FX, having originally joined the Fastmatch ECN in 2015. Before that, he worked in institutional FX sales at UBS and Barclays Capital.

Kristen Grippi joined Evercore as a Senior Managing Director and Head of Equity Capital Markets. based in New York, she will work with senior bankers throughout the firm to advise clients across sectors on structuring and marketing initial public offerings, follow-ons and convertible offerings. Grippi has more than 20 years’ industry experience and joins Evercore from Goldman Sachs where she was head of the Industrials ECM Group and Equity Syndicate.

Joram Siegel joined Cowen Inc.’s Outsourced Trading division as Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income Outsourced Trading. Mr. Siegel will be based in New York and report to Michael Rosen and Jack Seibald, Global Co-Heads of Prime Brokerage and Outsourced Trading. Siegel brings more than 20 years of practice in credit markets to Cowen. Prior to joining Cowen, Mr. Siegel spent six years at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in New York and London, where he most recently served as Managing Director, Head of Credit Americas and Global Credit Coordinator. Prior to that, Mr. Seigel spent seven years at RBC Capital Markets where he was the Head of Investment Grade Credit Trading. 

Capco, a management and technology consultancy, named Babak Omidi as a new Partner within its Canadian business. Omidi has almost 20 years of experience in DevOps, cloud, software delivery, solutions architecture, release management and automation. He specializes in Agile Delivery in the cloud using end-to-end DevOps, with emphasis on security and compliance, release management and operational uptime. During his time at Capco, Babak has been instrumental in driving the adoption of Agile, DevOps and cloud best practices and principles across multiple teams and organizations. 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Paul G. Cellupica, Deputy Director and Chief Counsel of the Division of Investment Management, will depart the agency later this month. Cellupica rejoined the division as Deputy Director in November 2017, and became Chief Counsel in June 2018. The division’s Office of the Chief Counsel is responsible for responding to requests for legal and policy guidance, evaluating applications for exemptive relief, overseeing the division’s liaison with the Divisions of Enforcement and Examinations, technical assistance on legislation affecting investment advisers and funds, and engagement with international regulators on matters related to asset management.