BlackRock selected a former FlexTrade order management system pre-sales specialist for a solutions engineering role on its flagship Aladdin platform. According to an update on his social media, Federico Grasso has joined BlackRock’s Aladdin as vice president in engineering solutions after spending the last year at FlexTrade, in a pre-sales role for its buy-side order management system business, FlexONE. Grasso joined FlexTrade last year after three and a half years at Bloomberg, also with a buy-side OMS focus, most recently serving as an account manager for its AIM solution. Previously he also served across ANIMA Asset Management and Mediobanca.
The London Stock Exchange (LSEG) appointed Charlie Walker as deputy chief executive officer, where he will support the daily running of the exchange and oversee the Group’s primary markets business. Walker originally joined LSEG in 2018 and has since served as head of equity and fixed income primary markets. Before joining LSEG, Walker worked within JP Morgan Cazenove’s equity capital markets team, where he was responsible for originating and executing equity transactions. Walker will report to Julia Hoggett, chief executive of LSE, and will join the firm’s board, subject to regulatory non-objection.
Bank of America made three new appoints to its EMEA equities distribution business, according to an internal memo seen by The TRADE. The appointments were: Matt Watson as global head of structured issuance for equities, Maxime Menard, as new head of EMEA X-Asset third party distribution sales, and Vincent Charvin as EMEA head of delta one sales. The hires, set to begin in their new roles in the coming months, follows a period of increased activity for the area, according to the memo, which highlighted the strong momentum enjoyed by the business over the last 12 months.
London-based Watson is a Citi veteran, having spent over 26 years at the company, most recently as equities global head of issuance solutions. In his new role, he is set to be focused on the global growth of the structured notes business, The TRADE understands. He will report to Martina Slowey, head of EMEA equities, and Matthew Scott, global head of the asset optimisation group.
Paris-based Maxime is set to leverage his experience in structured products for 3PD in this new role. Most recently he was head of the cross-asset distribution team at Societe Generale, overseeing the UK, Ireland, Nordics, Iberia, Central Eastern European, Israel and Africa. Charvin is based out of London and was most recently global co-head of custom baskets and EQ managed portfolio solutions at Goldman Sachs. Both Menard and Charvin will report to Alexandre Isaaz, head of EMEA equities derivatives sales and structuring, The TRADE understands.