Optiver appointed Lance Braunstein as global chief technology officer (CTO), effective 1 May. He will join from BlackRock, where he most recently served as head of Aladdin engineering, holding responsibility for the design, product management, development and operation of the firm’s investment management technology platform. Before that, Braunstein served as chief information officer at E-Trade, where he developed an options trading platform. Elsewhere in his career, he has held senior technology-related positions at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Laetitia Visconti joined Aquis Exchange as head of market structure following almost 14 years at Barclays. Most recently, Visconti served as head of EMEA equities market structure and market connectivity, overseeing Barclays’ equities low latency market access to EMEA trading venues and liquidity providers. She was also responsible for leading the firm’s market structure and policy agenda – from advocacy to implementation. London-based Visconti has also previously worked at SunGard Global Execution Services as head of liquidity services.
Sean O’Keeffe joined Novate Global Markets’ institutional sales team, having departed from his post as head of CEEMEA trading and sales at MUFG Securities EMEA in May 2023. During his tenure at MUFG, O’Keeffe was originally responsible for the sales team before the role was expanded to include trading in 2015. London-based O’Keeffe was also a founding member of the firm’s emerging market fixed income business. Elsewhere in his career, he has served in various sales-relating roles, including stints at Credit Agricole CIB and Standard Bank.
Oliver Deutschmann joined Liquidnet as head of equity derivatives EMEA and head of listed derivatives Continental Europe, following 15 years with Credit Suisse. Deutschmann left Credit Suisse in December 2024, having most recently served as head of equity derivatives flow sales for Germany and Austria. Frankfurt-based Deutschmann previously served in various trading-related roles across the industry, including as head of ETD fixed income sales, Germany and Austria at UBS. Elsewhere in his career, he also worked as a sales trader at Commerzbank, and before that served in a derivatives sales trading role at Commerz Futures, based in Chicago.