Hawk Search Executive Recruitment

WELCOME TO HAWK SEARCH EXECUTIVE RECRUITMENT

Welcome to Hawk Search Limited. We are a UK-based Executive Search firm working with companies that sell pricing, data, news, software and technology products to investment banks, investment managers, hedge funds and wealth managers. We help find analysts, reporters, sales, marketing, product and client service staff for our clients. Firms who use us include market data vendors, news wires, exchanges, economic and political research firms, technology vendors, inter-dealer brokers and rating agencies.

We are a client-led business. Our clients use Hawk Search when they require a collaborative and dedicated search to ensure they find the right person for the job. Our approach is structured and our search cycle includes business development, understanding the client brief, market research, candidate recommendations, presentation of long list, agreement of candidate short list, candidate approaches, managing interview logistics and, finally, contract negotiation.

We communicate very well and are always careful to set clear expectations. We work very hard because we really enjoy what we do. We are proud that a range of firms, from well-established companies to start-ups, choose us to represent them.

Our web site gives a good overview of the industry we represent. As well as our current mandates, we also provide industry news updates. We are always keen to speak to firms who are building a business around the right people and the most appropriate skill set.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER - BUY-SIDE SOLUTIONS - BASED HONG KONG

Our client is a global business that sells data and software solutions to front-office buy-side firms. Their products are packaged as bespoke or off-the-shelf solutions. This client puts customer service at the heart of all its business processes.

We seek a Business Development Manager based in Hong Kong to work across Asia to support sales teams in developing existing or building new products. These products are driven by customer demand and/or by changing financial markets regulations.

We would like to meet individuals with a commercial background who have experience of working with clients and who understand how products should be tailored, streamlined or developed. You will also work with product and sales teams and partner with regional heads to fine tune services to individual markets. It would be ideal if your experience was within the financial markets but we would consider other industries where you have experience of building new markets. Your work will support our client’s revenue growth.

You will communicate well and will manage multiple projects effectively. You will be able to build solutions by being intuitive and innovative. You will deliver without finite resources. You’ll be hands on and collaborative.

Salary is commensurate with experience for this role.

For more information, kindly contact Áine Hall.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER - BUY-SIDE SOLUTIONS - BASED LONDON

Our client is a global business that sells data and software solutions to front-office buy-side firms. Their products are packaged as bespoke or off-the-shelf solutions. This client puts customer service at the heart of all its business processes.

We seek a Business Development Manager based in London to work across Europe to support sales teams in developing existing or building new products. These products are driven by customer demand and/or by changing financial markets regulations.

We would like to meet individuals with a commercial background who have experience of working with clients and who understand how products should be tailored, streamlined or developed. You will also work with product and sales teams and partner with regional heads to fine tune services to individual markets. It would be ideal if your experience was within the financial markets but we would consider other industries where you have experience of building new markets. Your work will support our client’s revenue growth.

You will communicate well and will manage multiple projects effectively. You will be able to build solutions by being intuitive and innovative. You will deliver without finite resources. You’ll be hands on and collaborative.

Salary is commensurate with experience for this role.

For more information, kindly contact Áine Hall.

GUEST BLOGGER ANDRES JAIME GIVES US AN INSIGHT INTO HIS WORK FOR A CENTRAL BANK

A big thank you to Andres Jaime for writing a guest blog post sharing with us what he learned whilst working at a Central Bank. As an introduction, Andres is currently reading a Masters in Mathematics of Finance at Columbia University. Before that he worked in various teams with The Central Bank of Mexico. Banco de México was established in July 1931.

 

Here's his summary...

 

My 5 years at the Banco de México were definitive in forming and solidifying my passion for my job in the financial markets.

 

Before I joined the bank I had a vague idea about what financial markets are, how they work, their size and their complexity. I''d gained that via a first degree in Economics. My time at the bank brought to light the huge implications that financial decisions have on the real economy, and as a consequence on the world.

 

I began my career in the bank at the money market operations desk, in which all the monetary policy for Mexico is implemented. During the first year I wasn’t aware of the big responsibility that this implied. Open Market operations provide liquidity to banks, which my team worked on, as well as being responsible for the primary offer of Mexican debt denominated in MXN (Mexican Peso).

While I learnt a lot during my first year, a big shift came about with the financial crisis. From a policy maker perspective it was a significant challenge, since almost no one had experienced a similar situation before. The excitement and challenge of solving complex problems while the financial system was collapsing liquidity, market depth and pushing real economy into recession were the main reasons why I was so attracted to financial markets. Furthermore, during the crisis, the high volatility in the MXN market was very difficult to cope with. Managing speculator flows while trying to keep the “free float” of the currency was a very hard task for the local desks. I remember the day when we all began in the Mexican markets, the turning point was when the General Director of operations stepped into the trading room and he started trading as he did 30 years ago.

Later on, I was promoted to the international foreign exchange desk, in which a considerable share of the international reserves is managed (EUR, CAD, GBP, JPY, CHF, NZD, AUD and Gold). During the two years I spent at the desk, I had the opportunity to lead a team of very young people to whom I delegated a lot of significant tasks. One of the most fun and challenging projects that I headed was an important gold accumulation program (100 tons). One of the main problems was the time restriction of one month for completion, which made this program one of the fastest occurring in the last 10 years. Some other diversification programs came out during the last year when we included AUD and NZD into our basket of tradable currencies.

Throughout my career *crisis* would be a word that most accurately has described markets for me. In the following years, we will experience an evolution in the nature of financial markets, perhaps adopting different features for all of us; and it is exactly that which makes them addictive and motivates me to continue to play a role in them.

So, having read a degree in Economics and then spent five years at a Central Bank, Andres hopes that his Masters study can take him into a role where he can be directly involved in investment strategies. This would ideally be a quant role but more involved in the macro side of markets and taking part in investments.

It was very enjoyable talking with Andres. You can keep in touch with him via Twitter. His handle is @andres_jaime.

QUALITY PROGRAM MANAGER - FINANCIAL MARKET DATA - BASED USA

Background

Our client is a global organisation with a quality program that was launched eight years ago. This started as a journey to hire, train and run green belt evenings mainly based around small projects. In the last 2 years it has gained massive traction and uses the Toyota model in the way they are modelling quality. They have instilled a vision into the corporation that quality is good. In positively demonstrating how their quality program impacts the bottom line, it has been endorsed amongst the senior management team and was recently mentioned at their shareholder conference. The quality program spans all sections of our client's business.

Hiring Need           

We are hiring someone to take Lean Six Sigma deep into our client's organisation. To achieve this we seek a Quality Manager who loves coaching, mentoring, monitoring and is passionate about quality. You will not initially be mandated to drive projects but you may do so in time. You will have the authority and ability to coach/mentor at any level. Underpinning that expertise is a real passion. You will have a strategic mindset, with strong mentoring, leadership and change management skills. My client has emphasised the need for clear thinking, coherent communication and influencing. You will think big and work with data analysis, for example, Fishbone, Pareto charts, value stream but the emphasis is more on influencing and communicating than on number crunching. You will be a guru who will put quality at the core of our client's organisation.

Requirement

The right person will have Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification (and a minimum Batchelor's degree). You will ideally have eight or more years of work experience in a service-based industry with prior experience as a Black Belt leading large, successful process improvement projects using Lean Six Sigma methodology. You will be a confident self-starter who excels at working with limited supervision and thinking creatively to resolve issues.

For more information about this role, kindly contact Aine Hall.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR - INDEX LICENSING - BASED LONDON

Our client is a successful global firm that provides data and research solutions to investment managers across the globe. We are working with their business division that licenses financial benchmarking data to buy-side firms. They have ambitious pan-European revenue growth plans.

We seek a Business Development Director to build European revenues. You will work consultatively with European investment managers providing index solutions for benchmarking across, for example, ETF providers, structured products and traditional investments.

You will have a track record of pulling together strategic sales solutions. You'll also have a strong investment background as well as an excellent network of contacts within the asset management world. 

You will have at least 7 years experience selling to C-Level executives at ETF providers and investment management firms. At interview you will describe how you have been successful in selling solutions in this industry. You will also have had good tenure in all your business development roles.

Compensation is excellent and will be commensurate with experience.

For more information about this role kindly contact Aine Hall.

A SUMMARY OF 2012 PREDICTIONS

We’ve been reading many predictions about what’s in store for 2012. But, in case 2011 is a long distant memory, check out this summary from Lianna Brinded at Euromoney for a whirlwind tour of last year. Below is a summary of some of the news articles we’ve read with their predictions for 2012.

RISK

Eurasia Group published their Top Risks for 2012. They write, “The most important macro theme for 2012: The world’s key political decision-makers will be focused heavily on questions of domestic economic stability at the expense of international security concerns at a moment when politics is having unprecedented impact on the global economy. This conflation of global politics and markets defines the formal end of the 9/11 era, a moment when decision-makers sought to isolate globalization from international security concerns.” The end of the 9/11 era is their top risk for 2012. Here is the full article, Eurasia Group’s Top Risks 2012. 

ECONOMICS

The Eurozone gets a lot of attention in the press.

A Reuters' poll suggests the pound will hold firm versus the Euro in 2012.

Simon Smith, Chief Economist at FxPro says 2012 will decides euro’s fate, as muddling through becomes unaffordable and politically unsustainable. He also thinks a country (Greece) will leave the Euro.

Chris Skinner, published an excellent article on his Financial Services Club Blog earlier in the week where he sums up his four predictions:

• Asia’s light continues to shine, but not quite as bright
• American equities is the place to invest
• There will be a major European bank failure
• A country will leave the Eurozone

This is the full article, 2012: an economic outlook and we also recommend you read his 2012: a bank technology outlook and his 2012: a banking outlook articles.

We watched this twenty minute YouTube video that was published on the ZeroHedge website, a Q&A session between Michael Hewson, Senior Market Analyst at CMC Markets and Megan Greene, Senior Economist at Roubini Global Economic. Megan also predicts Greece will leave the Euro and much, much more.

Keith Mullin, Editor-At-Large of International Financing Review (IFRR) wrote in his twitter feed there are "very few positives for financial markets." Here is his article. You know any article that starts with the statement You Thought 2011 Was Tough? is not one that is going to offer much cheer. And neither is the one that tells us that recession in Europe is the number one economic issue for 2012. Of course it's not just the Eurozone. @bloombergview tweeted earlier in the week, Why we're uneasy about the global economy in 2012.

But at least Kate Burgess in the Financial Times (subscription) writes asset managers hope that 2012 will be a brighter year.

And! More good cheer! A new study has suggested that America's largest banks are set to enjoy increased levels of profit throughout 2012.

DATA, TRADING & TECHNOLOGY

Now more specifically to our industry...Here is a selection of industry articles. Big Data is very topical, as is RDR and Regulations.

A readers' poll in ISS-Mag talks about the top five IT Spends for 2012. They are 1) Swaps trading and central clearing, 2) Data Management, 3) Risk Management, 4) Cloud Computing and 5) Corporate Actions. Another article informed us that wealth management firms plan to boost IT spending in 2012. This Forbes' published summary of 2012 cloud predictions is very interesting.

On data, DataQualityPro.com provide 5 Data Quality Predictions for 2012 and one pundit predicts 2012 will be the year companies will learn to love Big Data.

On trading, The Seven Global Market Structure Trends for 2012 written by @marketstructure for @SecTechMonitor is an excellent read.

DerivSource, the online community and information source for professionals active in derivatives processing, technology and related services, runs an article on ISDA's operational priorities and projects for 2012, written by ISDA's Julian Day, Head of Market Infrastructure.

Here's The Wall Street Journal's 2012 Regulatory and Market Landscape with a look ahead for The Volcker Rule, CFTC, SEC, CFPB, deals and deal-makers, IPOs, hedge funds, commodities, exchanges, high frequency traders, stock trading and ETFs.

And finally! We are on the Final RDR Countdown and Money Marketing says 2012 "marks the last year of the pre-RDR era and many advisers will have a fight on their hands to ensure they are ready in time."

SALES DIRECTOR - BUY-SIDE DATA & SOFTWARE - BASED HONG KONG

Our client is a financial corporation with offices in all the major financial centres across the global.  They have a range of products and services across retail and wholesale financial markets. We are working with their Asia Pacific operation that sells subscription information services to buy-side firms in the region across a range of data and software services.

We seek a Sales Director (ideally based in our client’s regional Hong Kong HQ but, we would also consider candidates in Singapore, Korea, Mumbai or Sydney).

You will successfully drive revenue growth in the region. In this role you will manage a small team of sales executives who work remotely selling a range of software and data services to investment managers. You will mentor/coach/develop the team and help them reach/exceed their sales targets through account planning/managing activity rates/converting sales opportunities. Your team is responsible for new business and account management. You will also directly manage key client relationships in the region and run your own book of business.

You will be able to manage multi-location teams. As well as managing and motivating your own sales team you will have the skill to build relationships with key stakeholders who might influence product development.

This is an excellent opportunity for a sales leader and will lead to further career progression based on success in this role.

For more information, kindly contact Áine Hall.

SIGNING OFF FOR THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS

We’re coming to the end of another calendar year at Hawk Search.

We shout out a big THANK YOU to those firms who have asked us to work with them over the last twelve months.

We don’t mind sharing that in 2011 we longed to hear talk of double digit growth and aggressive hiring but this year has been the one that saw (to name but a few events) the US downgrade by S&P, the Occupy Movement, the European debt crisis, the demise of MF Global, mass redundancies by global investment banks.

The economic environment has meant having to build a bigger base of business to counter...

Hiring freezes.

Companies taking longer to make hiring decisions.

Firms reluctant to let their top people meaning counter-offers.

Downward pressure on salaries.

Hiring mandates being pulled.

But it really is not all doom and gloom. We recently started writing up People Moves in the Industry News section of our blog. Firms are hiring. There are job opportunities out there.

In the past 12 months we have successfully hired in London, New York and Chicago. We are also working on new mandates for 2012 in London, New York, Paris and Hong Kong (<- this new role will be posted on our blog in the New Year).

For the next few days we’ll be putting our feet up over the Christmas holidays.

Our very best wishes for the holiday season from Áine and Andrew at Hawk Search. We wish you much success in 2012.

We’ll be back blogging again in the New Year.

RECENT PEOPLE MOVES

Here are some People Moves that have been announced over the past few weeks...

Progress Software announced last month they had appointed Jay Bhatt as President and Chief Executive Officer.

XSP, the global leader in automated end-to-end Corporate Actions solutions, announced in November that Patrick Williamon joined the Company as a Quality Assurance Manager.

Also last month, Inside Market Data (subscription) reported McGraw-Hill's Platts energy and commodities data business had hired Gordon Springett in the newly created role of senior compliance officer, based in London.

At the start of this month, ICAP announced the appointment of Gary Pettit to the new position of Global Head of Financial Futures and Options. Gary Pettit was formerly Global Head of Futures and Options at MF Global. The press release states that ICAP has also "recruited, so far, an additional 25 former MF Global staff across London, New York, Chicago and Sydney which will significantly enhance its existing execution brokerage offering."

Finextra reported that Vocalink had named David Yates as their new CEO.

IPC Systems, a leading provider of trading communications solutions to the world's top financial services firms, announced the appointment of Peter Brucia to Vice President of Sales, focused on increasing data services worldwide.

ISS-Mag reported that GlobeOp had appointed Eamon Greaves as Global Head of Business Development.

ISS-Mag has also hired a Chris Kentouris as editor-in-chief for International Securities Services Magazine's online edition.

Zephyr Associates, a global leader in the development of analytical software tools for the financial management industry, announced that Alexander McBride has joined the firm as a Client Consultant in its London office.

WealthBriefing announced Bonaire Software Solutions, an asset management technology firm, has appointed Robin Sproull as director of programme management for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Sumerian announced they had named Bryan Clark as CEO. 

On Twitter we read via @MikeHypercube that Bank of America had named John Bottega Chief Data Officer.

BATS Chi-X Europe announced their executive committee appointments. Reuters reported that "Bats Europe former top management have claimed all but two of the top jobs in the newly formed Bats Chi-X Europe, created by Bats Global Markets' takeover of rival exchange Chi-X completed two weeks ago."

GorkanaPR announced that Peter Thomas has joined Bloomberg as head of corporate communications for the organisation across the EMEA region. (This was reported on Twitter by @AndrewCarrier.)

SENIOR SOLUTIONS SALES - FINANCIAL MARKETS - BASED LONDON

Our client is a VC-backed enterprise that has commercial offices across the globe and offshored, well-resourced data centres. We are working with their global business development team based in London.

Our client sells data, reporting and software solutions to a wholesale financial customer base. They have ambitions to aggressively grow revenues and this will be achieved both via their own product development and through acquisitions.

This role will involve new business sales across our client's financial markets solutions. You will sell big ticket solutions and will have the experience of pulling together internal and external resources to create customer solutions and make deals happen. You will ideally have formal sales training (Miller Heiman/Dale Carnegie) and you will have exceeded sales targets in previous firms within this sector. Depending on experience you will have a target between $2m and $3.5m per annum for selling hosted solutions.

Your key responsibility will be to reach sales targets through new business sales to new named clients across buy-side and sell-side firms.

You will be self-sufficient and be able to work under your own steam. You will be able to generate smaller deals to keep momentum going whilst also building and closing a pipeline of larger deals. You will have strong financial markets knowledge, a sales track record and an established network of contacts across buy-side and/or sell-side firms.

This is an excellent sales opportunity with a competitive compensation package. For more information, kindly contact Aine Hall.

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE BUYS FTSE

City AM reported this morning that The London Stock Exchange took total control of stock index provider FTSE International yesterday, by buying Pearson’s 50 per cent stake for £450m.

The press release entitled FTSE Announces New Ownership Structure states, "FTSE’s ambitious growth plans will be accelerated with the support of the London Stock Exchange Group, including its expansion in geographies such as the US, where increased usage of its indices amongst some of the largest asset owners and investment managers accounts for 30% of total index revenues."

Reuters, in their report LSE snaps up Pearson's FTSE stake, stated the "acquisition is the latest move by LSE Chief Executive Xavier Rolet to take tighter control of the various business units that the LSE relies on to offer its trading, clearing, data and technology services."

The Independent's article, Rolet's back with £450mn FTSE deal, points out this deal works on two levels:

"Firstly, it is a good fit with the exchange's continuing attempts to force its way into the derivatives business – it has already launched FTSE 100 futures through its electronic trading platform Turquoise, challenging Liffe, the London futures exchange. Having full control of FTSE will help the LSE to develop further products.

Secondly, it fits with Mr Rolet's attempts to seize control of the various nuts and bolts of the exchange business that he doesn't already own. He remains in talks over a deal to buy LCH.Clearnet, which clears trades over the exchange, and two years ago bought Millennium IT, a Sri Lankan technology company, with the aim of securing control of the software that underpins the exchange's various operations and selling it to others."

More Reuters Results for:

"ftse lse"

• PRESS DIGEST - Financial Times - Dec 13
  Mon, Dec 12 2011 
• UPDATE 4-LSE snaps up Pearson's FTSE stake
  Mon, Dec 12 2011 
• LSE snaps up Pearson's FTSE stake
  Mon, Dec 12 2011 
• European deal doubts take toll on FTSE
  Mon, Dec 12 2011 

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Stocks and euro steady, downgrade fears weigh

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LSE snaps up Pearson's FTSE stake

STANDARD & POOR'S RE-ORGANISATION

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has announced its first management shakeup since former Citigroup executive Doug Peterson took over in September, saying the ratings firm's chief credit officer will be succeeded by a veteran employee.

The S&P press release yesterday announced the following changes:

"As part of the organizational change, Mr. Coughlin, who had been Executive Managing Director, Corporate & Government Ratings, has been named Executive Managing Director, Global Analytics & Operations. He will coordinate global management of the analytical units and have direct responsibility for the ratings business, including corporate, financial services, government and structured finance in the Americas. During a transition period, he will oversee the Structured Finance Groups worldwide.

David Jacob, who had been the Global Head of Structured Finance, will be leaving Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services at the end of the year.

Mr. Le Pallec, Managing Director, Corporate and Government Ratings for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), has been named Executive Managing Director, EMEA with responsibility for the ratings business in these important regions.

Mr. Dinwoodie, Managing Director, Corporate Ratings, has been named Executive Managing Director, Market Development, a new global role based in London. He will be responsible for outreach and service for investors and other market participants, strategic planning, and merger and acquisition activities.

Mr. Sniado, Chief Technology Officer, has been named Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer with an expanded portfolio of responsibilities, including Operational Performance and Data Strategy & Operations.

Mark H. Adelson, who most recently served as Chief Credit Officer and was instrumental in strengthening the firm’s criteria process, has been named Senior Research Fellow. Mr. Adelson will lead critical new research projects as part of an expanded thought leadership initiative.

Ian D. Thompson, Managing Director, Chief Credit Officer, Asia-Pacific, has been appointed Senior Managing Director, Chief Credit Officer with global responsibility."

CLIENT RELATIONSHIP MANAGER - MARKET DATA - BASED LONDON

Our client is a global privately-held business that delivers financial market data solutions to investment managers via customised datafeeds. They deliver the data directly to clients or via partner firms. We are working with their client relationship team based in London

We seek a Client Relationship Manager to support clients in the UK, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg. You will be the client's first point of contact. In this role you will work with sales and client services teams to develop the ongoing strategy for retaining revenue, building the business, understanding and maximising client’s use of data, incorporating new products and maintaining competitive advantage.

You will be fluent in English and French and be prepared to travel to visit clients in your territory. You will be passionate about delivering the best customer service and you will also have a keen judgement for assessing revenue at risk or for spotting new business opportunities. You will be pro-active. You'll also be able to operate independently managing client relationships. You'll also work cooperatively in a team.

Salary will be commensurate with experience for this client facing role. To find out more, kindly contact Aine Hall.

ACCOUNT MANAGER - FINANCIAL MARKET DATA - BASED PARIS

Our client is a global privately-held business that delivers financial market data solutions to investment managers via customised datafeeds. They deliver the data directly to clients or via partner firms. We are working with their commercial team in Paris.

We seek an Account Manager to manage clients in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg. You will maintain existing client revenues as well as up-sell and cross-sell to existing clients. You will carry your own target and you will negotiate all new contracts. You will receive commissions based on net new revenues and payment schedules are subject to well-incentivised accelerators.

You will have prior knowledge of financial market data and you will be very pro-active and tenacious. You will network extensively within your territory and you’ll facilitate referrals from existing end users into other areas of your client base. You will also be able to work well under your own steam as this is a regional office that reports to a London sales function.

Salary will be commensurate with experience. For more information about this role, kindly contact Aine Hall.

THOMSON REUTERS ANNOUNCES NEW ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND LEADERSHIP

Thomson Reuters issued a new press release yesterday regarding their new organisational structure and leadership.

The press release begins...

Thomson Reuters (TSX/NYSE: TRI), the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced the new organizational structure and leadership it will adopt as of January 1, 2012. This new, integrated structure aligns our business with our key customer segments and will consist of the following business units:

• Financial & Risk: David Craig, president
• Legal: Mike Suchsland, president
• Intellectual Property & Science: Chris Kibarian, president
• Tax & Accounting: Brian Peccarelli, president
• Global Growth Organization: Shanker Ramamurthy, president

On December 31, 2011, Thomas H. Glocer, chief executive officer of Thomson Reuters and Reuters Group PLC since 2001, will retire and be succeeded on January 1, 2012 by James C. Smith, currently chief operating officer of Thomson Reuters. Mr. Glocer will also retire as a director of Thomson Reuters on December 31, 2011.

This is the full press release.

SENIOR SALES - EQUITY - BASED NEW YORK

Our client is a global market data vendor with a large suite of products used by investment banks and investment managers across the front-office (to help make better investment decisions) and the middle- and back-offices (to measure and manage performance or for regulation and compliance). They have offices in many major financial centres to support their global customer base. We are working with their EQUITIES business division in New York.

We seek a Senior Sales Executive to develop a book of business across an institutional client base. You will help clients build new solutions, for example, quantitative models, structured products, bespoke indices and ETFs. You’ll deliver new sales supported by existing reference sites and an expanding equity business unit.

You will have an in-depth knowledge of equity data and you’ll understand how data sets plug into different workflows within financial firms. You will understand how packages of data have a different perceived value according to end users and distribution channels.

We’re looking for someone who will demonstrate how they have sold customised solutions and delivered big ticket deals. At interview you will talk credibly about how you have over-achieved against sales targets and how you have delivered sales contracts by selling consultatively. You’ll have an excellent network of contacts and an established sales track record selling to US clients.

This is an excellent opportunity with scope for career development based on delivering results.

Our client offers a competitive compensation package which is negotiable based on experience.

For more information about this role, kindly contact Aine Hall.

CLIENT RELATIONSHIP MANAGER - EQUITY CAPITAL MARKETS - BASED LONDON

Our client is a privately owned organisation that sells data and reporting products to equity capital markets teams across wholesale investment banking. Their products are customised to allow senior M&A bankers to make strategic decisions about the markets in which they operate.

We seek a smart client relationship manager who has an excellent network of senior contacts within equity capital markets across investment banking and private equity firms.

In this role you would regularly meet with senior executives and question them to really understand how they operate and how they are positioning themselves to make future revenues. You would then deliver off-the shelf or customised products that would support their business expansion.

You will be naturally curious about businesses processes and you'll be a quick thinker. You’ll have excellent research skills and you’ll be able to deliver M&A solutions in a fast-paced environment.

Salary will be commensurate with experience for this role.

For more information, kindly contact Aine Hall.

RECENT PEOPLE MOVES

Take heart, there is hiring going on. Here are some interesting moves we’ve spotted in the past few weeks...

November 14^th 2011 - a press release by Rimes announced that “to support the company’s continued growth...Steve Davey has joined the company as Head of IT Infrastructure and Information Security, effective immediately. Reporting jointly to the CEO and the CTO, Davey will be responsible for maintaining RIMES’ global IT infrastructure and data centers in order to further enhance the delivery and reliability of RIMES BDS^sm, their award-winning benchmark data service. Additionally, he will oversee the Company’s information security.” 

November 15^th 2011 - MarketWatch reported that Pipeline Financial Group, Inc. will appoint Jay Biancamano as Executive Chairman.

November 16^th 2011 - Bats Europe named Adam Eades Head of Regulatory and Legal Affairs

A week ago, Andrew Carrier tweeted he’d read via Gorkana: "@BishopsgateCopy is now editor of FX-MM magazine. He previously had senior comms and banking roles at Saudi Hollandi Bank and HSBC.”  

November 21 2011 – Omgeo, the global standard for post-trade efficiency, announced the appointment of Ted Leveroni as Executive Director of Derivatives Strategy and External Relations. In his new role, Mr. Leveroni will be responsible for driving the development of strategies to grow Omgeo’s derivatives business.

November 21^st 2011 - XSP, the global leader in automated end-to-end Corporate Actions solutions, announced that Patrick Williamon has joined the Company as a Quality Assurance Manager. This appointment has been further supported by new hires within its Quality Assurance and Development teams. 

November 22^nd 2011 – Lianna Brinded wrote that Jean-Claude Trichet has re-surfaced as Chairman for the Group of 30 (G30), the international forum of public and private sector financial leaders.

Also via twitter on November 22^nd 2011 - @lkramer wrote “Big Move By Reuters: Managing Editor Dan Colarusso of Bloomberg TV Leaves for Reuters – FishbowlNY”

November 23^rd 2011 - MarketPrizm, a leading provider of market data and trading infrastructure services announced two key hires for its European team with the appointment of Megan Hession as Client Director and Ralph Achkar as Director, Product.

CUSIP GLOBAL SERVICES REACHES AGREEMENT WITH THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

From a press release via PR Newswire...

"CUSIP Global Services (CGS), a leading provider of securities identifiers and other solutions that enable efficient trading, clearing and settlement in capital markets throughout the world, today announced it has reached an agreement with the European Commission (EC) to create and distribute a new data feed of US ISINs tailored specifically to the needs of certain market participants domiciled in the European Economic Area (EEA).  The agreement follows a formal EC investigation of how CGS licenses and charges financial institutions for use of the US ISIN identifier within the EEA during which the EC made no findings of infringement.

"We welcome the EC's decision to allow CGS to market a new US ISIN service designed for market participants in the EEA who have unique, regional requirements and therefore require less comprehensive security identifier data than has been previously made available," said Jim Taylor, Global Head, CUSIP Global Services.  "CUSIP Global Services is continually looking at market needs and for ways to better address local investor requirements."

Containing limited descriptive data for certain publicly traded US securities, the new data feed, called the US ISIN Basic Service, brings to conclusion nearly three years of dialogue between CGS and the EC. Within the next five months, CGS will offer the new feed on a cost-recovery basis for participants taking it directly from CGS.  If a market data vendor chooses to integrate the new feed on behalf of its EEA customers, the end customers of that vendor could use the ISIN data from the feed, with some reasonable restrictions, without incurring any additional fees from CGS.

Apart from implementing the new data feed CGS will continue to reinvest in and add value to the more comprehensive data products with which most global financial institutions are familiar, whether they consume them directly from CGS or via a market data vendor.  CGS will also continue to expand its asset classes; support other identification initiatives such as the push for a common legal entity identifier; and enrich the descriptive data upon which so many firms rely for efficient idea-generation, trading, clearing, and settlement."

STRUCTURED FINANCE ANALYST - RMBS SURVEILLANCE TEAM - BASED LONDON

Our client is a global ratings agency. We are working with their Structured Finance business unit based in London covering a European portfolio of residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS). 

For this role we are looking for an analyst to rate a RMBS portfolio. You will review and analyse all credit aspects of EMEA RMBS transactions producing ratings within the guidelines of our client's rating methodology. You'll also prepare and present rating recommendations to rating committees. You'll publish articles relating to transactions and performance trends. You'll interact with clients, issuers and investors.

We are looking for individuals with excellent RMBS knowledge and strong analytical skills. You'll also have excellent communication skills (written and face-to-face).

For more information about this role, kindly contact Aine Hall.

THE IMPACT OF MF GLOBAL'S DEMISE

At Hawk Search we work with firms that sell data, research, software and technology to buy-side and sell-side firms. We don’t work with brokers, except where they have business divisions that sell broker data to third parties. Whilst we have never worked directly with MF Global, the firm’s demise does impact firms in our sector.

The MF Global company page on LinkedIn shows that a dozen people in our network joined the firm in recent weeks. They also were advertising for a VP Marketing based in Canary Wharf. There’ll be uncertainty for staff and there’ll be disappointed candidates who’d have been somewhere in the hiring process.

We read several articles today that highlight the knock-on effects in our world of financial data and technology.

The Financial Times reports that MF Global’s demise will be felt by commodities exchanges.

Finextra reported this morning that the MF Global collapse hit shares of Patsystems. They also claimed that the vendors with technology exposure to MF Global include Ffastfill, Thomson Reuters, and Fidessa. In a trading update, Fidessa says that it "does not anticipate that the situation at MF Global will have any material impact on the results for the year". There's more here from Securities Technology Monitor about how the bankruptcy will hit Patsystems.

Another casualty of the demise is Washington Research Group, acquired by MF Global a year ago. We read on the Integrity Research website that they are set to be orphaned for the fourth time. 

These articles are set against a backdrop of tighter market regulations and Business Week published this article stating that MF Global had exposed the prop trading risk that Volker aims to curb.

This YouTube interview with Reuters Breakingviews said "MF Global's bankruptcy filing reinforces the idea that proprietary trading belongs where its damage to the system can be limited."

There's a mass of opinion about MF Global on twitter, particularly around allegations that hundreds of millions of dollars of client money may have gone missing in recent days and weeks. In the Twittersphere one tweeter, @johnpneedham, writes "I remain agog at the hubris that led anyone at MF to believe they could nick even a dollar from Customer Seg and not get caught."

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR - INDEPENDENT RESEARCH - BASED LONDON

Our client is an independent research provider of macro-economic and sector coverage. They sell their products on a subscription and/or vote basis to hedge funds and buy-side firms including fund managers, asset managers, money managers.

We seek a new business sales executive as the first person in Europe to sell to Portfolio Managers, Analysts and Research Executives. You will reach sales targets by selling to new customers in Europe and pro-actively building revenues by increasing product usage and up-selling as sector coverage expands.

This role reports to New York and you will therefore have the right self-starter approach to work in a satellite office. You will have strong market knowledge, a sales track record and an established network of contacts across the buy-side. Our client plans to build their operations in Europe and there is the opportunity to lead the sales operation which will be funded by European revenues you will bring to the table.

This role offers a competitive salary and equity participation.

For more information kindly contact Aine Hall.

A-TEAM'S DMRAV EVENT WAS ENJOYABLE YESTERDAY

A big thank you to A-Team for their Data Management for Risk, Analytics and Valuations event yesterday. It was great to meet with A-Team's Angela Wilbraham, Virginie O'Shea, Jim Willis and Ron Wilbraham as well as many other people from buy-side firms and the vendor community.

There were a range of panels and sessions covering a new legal entity identifier (LEI), data integration, big data, valuations and much, much more!

In the valuations panel A-Team used a recent evaluations survey as a basis for a discussion with Six Telekurs' Richard Newbury, S&P's Roderik Gonggrijp and Blackrock's Huw Bishop. There was even a reference to a communist approach to pricing, albeit in jest! This panel along with Six Telekurs' session on evaluations with Ian Blance were topical and interesting for Hawk Search as we do work in this area both for evaluators as well as commercial staff.

SIX MONTHS SINCE THE DAVIES' REPORT, WOMEN ON BOARDS

It is six months since the former Trade Minister, Lord Davies, was appointed by the government to look into why so few women make it into senior positions in UK business. Earlier this year figures showed that just 12.5% of FTSE100 company directors were women. Lord Davies' report, Women on Boards, came out in February 2011. He recommended that UK listed companies in FTSE100 companies should aim for a minimum of 25% female board member representation by 2015.

This morning, BBC Radio Four's Woman's Hour looked at how those companies are doing in an interview with Ruth Sealy, Senior Research Fellow at Cranfield School Management. This is the interview on iPlayer (25 minutes in, but only available for a week from today).

Sealy points out in her interview that only 6 months have passed since the report was published so that is not much time to expect huge changes. She highlights some positives:

• February's 12.5% figure is now >14% in just six months.
• Of new appointments, the percentage going to women has gone up with over 22% of new appointments going to women, over the last 6 months.
• Of all the new appointees in the past 6 months, the majority had not had prior FTSE board experience. Sealy says executive search firms and Chairmen are broadening the pool of talent from which they are looking. This means it's not the same women on boards doing the rounds all the time.

In the interview, Sealy also pointed out that many firms, particularly FTSE250 ones, ignore the recommendations. In these firms, the figures are not as favourable as amongst the FTSE100 and there tends to be an attitude of let's wait and see if we really need to do something. She also added that there is a real-threat from the European Commission, in that they may try to impose quotas for women on boards.

When asked what is the chance of Lord Davies' recommendation of a minimum 25% of female board representation happening by 2015, Sealy responded that if boards continue at the same rate of change of 22.5% of positions going to women, then the target will be missed. To hit the target, 30% of appointments need to go to women. She added there are 155 women on FTSE boards and to get to  Davies' target of 25%, we only need a further 155 women appointed to boards.

DATA MANAGEMENT FOR RISK, ANALYTICS AND VALUATIONS: EVENT IN LONDON NEXT WEEK

A-Team’s Data Management for Risk, Analytics and Valuations (DMRAV) event takes place in London next week on Monday 17^th October 2011.

The London DMRAV event will have a strong focus on the emerging technologies now being used for risk management and analytics on an enterprise basis.

A-Team say, “While there’s no doubt that new regulatory edicts covering risk management will provide new challenges for trading firms, the prospect of a proactive approach to enterprise data brings with it significant opportunities that innovative financial institutions are beginning to realise. This translates into opportunities too for vendors of data management technologies, whether from the traditional EDM marketplace, from global IT heavyweights, or from a host of technology upstarts. We’ll be looking specifically at how those technologies are starting to impact the risk and analytics spaces.”

DMRAV London will also have a stream dedicated to valuations, featuring A-Team's own research in that space, offering insight into how the marketplace views the raft of evaluated pricing sources on offer in the marketplace.

Follow updates for the event using the #DMRAV hashtag on Twitter.

Here's the DMRAV conference program.

These are the confirmed DMRAV speakers.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR - LIFE & PENSIONS - BASED LONDON

Our client is a global market data firm with an institutional and retail customer base across financial markets. They are building a new business area in the life and pensions sector where they will be selling data, software and consultancy services.

We seek a senior Sales Relationship Manager with an established network of contacts amongst CEOs, CIOs and senior marketing executives within the fund industry to present fund selection solutions, fund advisory and pensions and life platforms. You will have both a detailed knowledge of and an excellent track record of selling complex product solutions to this sector.

This role requires a sound technical knowledge of the funds, life and pensions industries. This includes how they are marketed, e-commerce platforms and distribution channels.

Salary will be commensurate with experience.

For more detailed information about this role, kindly contact Aine Hall.

WHY AN EMPLOYER COULD REJECT YOU BECAUSE OF YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE

Kashmir Hill, a Forbes' privacy blogger, recently wrote a blog posting citing a start-up firm, Reppler, that recently commissioned a new survey of 300 hiring types to see how they’re using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Craigslist, Tumblr, MySpace, et. al. to screen candidates: 91% of them are doing social networking screens of job applicants. Yes, 91%!

Within the survey this question was asked...

Have you ever rejected a candidate because of what you saw about them on a social networking website?

Here's a graphic of the responses:

Here's the blog post from Reppler (with a clearer graphic), entitled Managing Your Online Image Across Social Networks.

Kashmir Hill

The Not-So Private Parts

• My Profile
• My Headline Grabs
• My RSS Feed

Oct. 4 2011 — 4:00 pm | 1 comment

From The Bad Idea File: A ‘Guess Who’s Going To Be Fired Next’ Contest

'The Office' meets 'Lord of the Flies'

A real-life boss in Illinois has outdone The Office’s Michael Scott. William Ernst, owner of a chain of convenience stores called Q-C Mart, decided to run a “fun” game at his stores last March, sending out a memo to all employees announcing it: “NEW CONTEST – GUESS THE NEXT CASHIER WHO WILL BE FIRED!!!”

continue »

 

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Oct. 4 2011 — 2:06 pm | 0 comments

Quotes of the Day: Justifying Your Facebook Addiction

Lucky timing?

“No, I really do use Facebook all day long.”

– Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, responding (in 6 minutes) to someone who suggested that “just as drug dealers don’t use the product they sell,” Zuck was probably not as addicted to his site as the rest of its users. Zuck, though, probably doesn’t spend all his time playing Farmville. Via TruthfulTech/Zdnet.

“I don’t trust people in our industry who don’t use Facebook… It’s the soul of how hundreds of millions of people are really experiencing their first time of participating online.”

– Scott Heiferman, founder of Meetup.com in an interview with Chris Dixon on TechCrunch, providing more proof that opting out of using Facebook is increasingly not an option.

 

 

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Oct. 4 2011 — 9:39 am | 5 comments

How The Past Haunts Us In The Digital Age

Facebook's Timeline brings the past to the present seamlessly

We often talk about how our pasts follow us online in a reputational sense. Last year, legal scholar Jeff Rosen took to the NYT Magazine to lament the “end of forgetting” in the age of the Web, and the downside of having embarrassing information archived permanently to be perused by future employers, significant others, and anyone who might type your name into a search engine. Facebook’s new Timeline has me thinking about another non-public aspect of ‘the end of forgetting’: the way we can unexpectedly invoke  our emotional histories thanks to the easy mining of our email and social networking accounts.

Almost everyone I have talked to has had this experience. You’re searching your email account with some innocuous phrase — “concert,” “dinner,” “orange juice,” “you’re breaking my heart,” “why did you kill my puppy?” — and you unexpectedly stumble upon a years-old conversation you had with someone. Whether you were at work, on your way out the door, or about to embark on a new project, you’re soon reading back through various email exchanges that capture the heartache, burgeoning love, or terrible agony of the time, and all of the emotions come flooding back. This used to be something you did consciously — making the decision to dig out a box of mementos from the back of your closet, or thumb back through an old journal, or meet with a person from your past for coffee — but now, Gmail may just unexpectedly serve it up to you in a search of your inbox. Our electronic pasts become accordion-like; moments from years earlier can suddenly be mushed up to the present — that can be painful, or wonderful, or thrilling… or all of these things, as it was for a Good writer who went through her four-year history of chat messages with her boyfriend after his death from cancer.

Facebook plans to offer us all a version of this soon, in the form of “Timeline.” (Well, not too soon. Timelines, Inc. has sued the social networking behemoth for trademark infringement. Facebook will be holding back the roll-out of that new feature until it figures out how much it’ll take to pay off Timelines, Inc. clears that legal matter up.) Timeline (assuming it’s still called that after the legal matter is cleared up) will mine your profile for all of the most important moments of your life and surface those to the front page of your profile. Depending on how much you turn to Facebook for the chronicling and journaling of your life, this might unearth some powerful moments you hadn’t expected, or wouldn’t have necessarily wanted, its algorithms to serve up to you.

“It’s a time machine,” wrote Charlie White of Mashable after activating his own Timeline before the official release. continue »

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Oct. 3 2011 — 9:26 am | 2 comments

What Prospective Employers Hope To See In Your Facebook Account: Creativity, Well-Roundedness, & ‘Chastity’

HEAD OF POLICY - UKSIF - BASED LONDON

This job is posted on behalf of UKSIF, the sustainable investment and finance association. They seek a Head of Policy.

In this stimulating and influential role, you will be at the heart of a UK and worldwide network seeking to advance sustainable development through responsible investment and other financial services. Working with UKSIF's Chief Executive and members, you will advocate for a regulatory and public policy environment that enables effective capital markets where sustainability and long-term profitability are aligned. You will develop and refine policy positions, undertake and coordinate influencing activities, write policy submissions and media articles, and, when needed, commission and undertake research.

You will also use your public policy knowledge and your influencing and communication skills to support the continuous development of leadership, competencies, knowledge, tools and relationships across the sustainable investment and finance industry. This will include managing UKSIF's Information and Analyst Services Manager, who delivers UKSIF's investment analyst seminar programme and other member networking and information support.

This new permanent post requires an excellent practical understanding of how change happens in UK regulation and public policy, experience of influencing relevant UK regulators and public policy makers and a network of relevant public policy contacts. Ideally, you will also have some understanding and/or experience at the EU level. You must be able to grasp new concepts easily and build excellent relationships with UKSIF members and stakeholders, but past experience in sustainable investment and finance is not essential.

Click here for the full job specification and read information about how to apply for the role.

McGRAW HILL AND CME IN TALKS TO MERGE INDEX BUSINESSES

There's coverage today of the report that McGraw Hill  (who own S&P), and the CME group (who own the Dow Jones Indexes) are in talks to combine their index businesses in a joint venture.

A Reuters' source has said, "McGraw-Hill would own the majority of the joint venture and manage it, while CME would own about 25 percent".

A Chicago Tribune article cautions that these talks "to form a joint venture between McGraw Hill's S&P Indices business and CME's Dow Jones Indexes unit began more than a year ago and could fall apart."

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER - FINANCIAL MARKETS - BASED LONDON

Our client is a US-headquartered business with offices across the globe. They have a suite of products across real-time financial market data, reference data, asset pricing, and trading solutions for wholesale and retail clients. We are working with their UK office.

We seek a Marketing Communications Manager who, always with an eye on the firm's revenue targets, will develop high level communication strategies using traditional and new social media techniques. No day will be the same. You'll manage all press communications, develop strategic editorial content and write thought leadership articles for different business units across different asset classes and with a wide user base. You'll manage press releases, marketing collateral and maximise distribution via a range of communication channels.

You'll have minimum five years' experience in the financial markets, with excellent communication skills and good evidence of managing successful marketing campaigns.

To discuss this role, kindly contact Aine Hall.