Ex-BlackRock CIO confirmed as chairman of ITG

Minder Cheng confirmed as chair while Frank Troise, formerly of JP Morgan, announced as new CEO of agency broker.

Agency broker ITG has selected former BlackRock chief investment officer Minder Cheng as its new board chairman.

Cheng – who has a been a director at the broker since November 2010 – was previously chief investment officer for Index Equity and Capital Markets at BlackRock, having worked for the company’s legacy business – Barclays Global Investors – prior to the merger in 2009.

In a statement to investors, ITG also confirmed that Frank Troise had become chief executive officer, president and board member on 15 January 2016.

The changes come after former CEO Bob Gasser left the business in August 2015 when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced ITG had reached a $20.3 million regulatory settlement over its dark pool pilot programme. Gasser had been in charge of the business since 2006.

In today’s statement to investors, Cheng said he would be working closely with board colleagues and the ITG management team to “regain operating momentum and maximise shareholder value.”

Prior to working at BGI and BlackRock, Cheng had held numerous trading roles in Tokyo, London and NewYork and currently serves as the chairman of the board of directors at Media Crossing Inc and as a senior adviser at Executive Networks.

Troise was previously at JP Morgan as a managing director and head of execution services until October 2015. Prior to that he was global head of electronic trading at Barclays Capital and head of US electronic execution at Lehman Brothers.

Before he was a Lehman, Troise had also spent eight years at ITG where one of his job roles was managing director in charge of client site sales and trading.

Rob Boardman, CEO of ITG Europe, said, “It’s very exciting to have such capable people joining the board of ITG. We look forward to working with Frank and Minder to help them understand the people and the business and develop a strategy.”

«