The London Stock Exchange has continued the development of Baikal, its dark pool aggregation service scheduled for launch in Q2 2009, with the hire of a chief operating officer and commercial director.
Natan Tiefenbrun, previously at agency broker Instinet, will join as commercial director, while Chris Rennoldson will move from his current position in corporate and business strategy at the exchange.
Tiefenbrun was responsible for the development of global algorithmic trading capabilities at Instinet and also formulated the liquidity platform strategy that evolved into Chi-X, the pan-European multilateral trading facility majority owned by Instinet Europe. Rennoldson was recently a key part of the team that managed the LSE’s merger with Borsa Italiana in 2007. Both will report to John Wilson, Baikal’s chief executive.
Furthermore, the inaugural meeting of the Baikal Buy-Side Advisory Group is scheduled for this week, with 15 buy-side institutions expected to participate.
Once it receives regulatory approval, Baikal plans to combine algorithmic and smart order routing technology with a multilateral non-displayed liquidity pool, open to both buy- and sell-side firms. The new trading venue was originally conceived in partnership with Lehman Brothers and new partners are being sought following the investment bank’s bankruptcy last September.