Liquidnet has made three key hires from Instinet to its equities franchise in the Americas, in a bid to grow its offering in the region.
The appointments bring extensive experience across agency, platform innovation and institutional sales, and are set to expand regional capabilities, as well diversifying execution channels and strengthening client engagement.
Mark Turner has been named co-head of equities sales and trading for the Americas and joins from Instinet, where he had been for more than 30 years. He served as a managing director at the firm, based out of New York.
Speaking to his appointment, Turner said: “Clients today are navigating increasingly complex markets and they’re looking for execution partners who can combine scale, insight, and flexibility. I believe Liquidnet is uniquely positioned to deliver on that and I’m looking forward to helping accelerate that journey.”
The hires also include Hillary Budds, who has been appointed as head of US crossing. Budds also most recently worked at Instinet, as an executive director from August 2017 to April 2025, and helped in the development and integration of BlockCross into the firm.
Previous experience also includes serving as a vice president at State Street, as well as trading positions at ITG and Cavu Capital.
The third hire to Liquidnet’s US equities business is David Ramirez, who joins as a senior member of the high touch and program trading team, following on from his position as a top revenue generator on Instinet’s high touch desk.
“As client expectations evolve, we’re investing in talent and capabilities that allow us to meet those demands, whether that’s driving more value in block trading, strengthening our inter-regional offering or expanding high-touch and program trading,” said Chris Jackson, global head of equities at Liquidnet, who was internally promoted in April 2025 from his previous role as global head of equity strategy and head of equities for EMEA.
He added: “These appointments reflect the confidence we have in our strategy and our ambition to lead in the agency execution space.”
The hires mark further appointments for Liquidnet in recent months. In March 2025, the firm also tapped Instinet for the hire of Mark Turner as managing director, co-head of sales and trading, Americas.
This was also followed by the appointment of Chris Blackburn as global head of multi-asset in April 2025, three months after his departure from UBS.