The global head of trading at Franklin Templeton Investments has departed after two decades to join trading performance analytics firm, FundSeeder.
Bill Stephenson joins FundSeeder as chief strategy officer as the firm looks to disrupt the buy-side community by sourcing and distributing trading talent.
He will report to FundSeeder’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Emanuel Balarie, who described Stephenson’s experience in trading and investment management as invaluable.
“We are excited to tap his fresh perspective as we continuously strive to enhance our suite of analytics and provide an innovative product to both traders and asset allocators,” Balarie said.
Stephenson has more than 20 years experience working at Franklin Templeton in various senior leadership roles, including global head of trading strategy.
Most recently, he led the equity, foreign exchange, and derivatives trading teams located in 13 locations across five continents.
Stephenson explained that once he heard the FundSeeder vision, it became clear the firm would be able to disintermediate the traditional fund management business through its platform.
“The future investment products created from this crowdsourced talent pool could dramatically change and expand the investment options for asset allocators,” he said.