Ronald Gould is leaving his role as CEO of Chi-X Asia-Pacific less than one year into the job, and one week after Chi-X Global CEO John Lowrey left his position, marking the departure of two key architects of what had appeared to be a successful expansion strategy in Asia.
Gould will leave his position on 15 October 2010 and will not be replaced. Changes to the firm’s management structure are expected to be announced in due course.
Lowrey left his role to become head of MarketPrizm, Chi-X Global's pan-European trading venue connectivity network and managed infrastructure service and was replaced by Tal Cohen, previously head of Chi-X Americas.
Chi-X Global is a subsidiary of agency broker Instinet Holdings, in turn a subsidiary of Japanese banking group Nomura. It operates Chi-X Asia-Pacific and Chi-X Americas which manage trading venues in the regions as well as the Chi-Tech technology product and services unit.
Both Lowrey and Gould were brought on board to drive the firm's expansion into Asia. Chi-X Japan, the firm's proprietary trading system, launched on 27 July 2010, while the firm has plans to launch Chi-East, a dark pool joint venture with the Singapore Exchange in Q4 2010, subject to regulatory approval, and Chi-X Australia, a displayed market, in Q1 2011. A spokesperson for Instinet confirmed that these plans had not changed.
Gould joined Chi-X Asia Pacific on 23 September 2009 from the Financial Services Authority, the UK regulator where he was a senior advisor on banking and investment. Prior to that he was a managing partner of Watch House Alliance, a financial services consultancy, and before that a founder and CEO of ABG Sundal Collier, a listed specialist investment bank. Gould has formerly held senior roles at AXA Investment Managers and Barclays Bank's asset management business.
On 25 May 2010 Chi-X Global chairman Tony MacKay
stepped aside to take the non-executive position of chairman emeritus. The position of chairman was filled by John Woodman, formerly a non-executive director at the firm and a UBS managing director. MacKay had been the founding CEO of Chi-X Europe and Chi-X Global and was seen as responsible for building out the Instinet and Chi-X franchises.