SUMMARY
SUMMARY
Robert Barnes started out at UBS in February 1994, gaining experience as a
yellow jacket on the London International
Financial Futures and Options Exchange
(LIFFE) derivatives trading floor.
His industry roles since then have
included participating on key advisory
and policy groups within the financial
services sector and serving as chairman
of the Securities Trading Committee
of the London Investment Banking
Association between 2004 and 2009.
In August 2013, he took up his
current role as CEO of Turquoise. He
is a chartered fellow of the Chartered
Institute for Securities & Investment
(CISI), and serves as trustee on its board.
He says: “I consider it my priority
to listen to customers and to prioritise
how we can help them to meet regulatory obligations. My responsibilities
also include helping clients to reduce
costs, and to generate revenues
through new business initiatives, which
are developed in partnership with
Turquoise.
“Two key trends within trading at
the moment are global passive indexation, and the complementary desire
to outperform benchmarks by trading block liquidity, through electronic
trading channels. Turquoise aims to
respond to this demand with innovation
and open access.” n
Laura Craft started her marketing career at Risk Magazine over twenty years
ago. Subsequent jobs enabled a move
into more product-focused roles, specifically within the equities post-trade arena.
Her current role at Traiana combines
marketing strategy with market knowledge and client engagement, which she
considers her most fulfilling role to date.
She describes Traiana as a supportive employer, noting the flexible
working arrangements which have enabled her to continue to progress in her
career while juggling the commitments
of being a mother.
She says: “I work with forward-thinking
clients on new initiatives within equities,
fixed income and the repo post-trade envi-
ronment. With an ever-increasing focus
on post-trade, my role is to ensure Traiana
remains up-to-date, or exceeds expecta-
tions, when providing tools and services
that increase efficiency and reduce risks to
client operations. I also operate within a
cost-conscious environment.
“Trading within our new regulatory,
cost-conscious age is often viewed as
constrictive. I believe that the buy-side
is key to turning trading around, and
making a cohesive case to regulators,
to ensure rules don’t stifle trading activity, innovation or ‘reasonable’ risk. Risk
drives profitability and without this, how
can firms innovate?” n
ROBERT BARNES
LAURA CRAFT
KEY FACTS
JOB TITLE
Chief executive officer
COMPANY
Turquoise
KEY FACTS
JOB TITLE
Director, equities and fixed income
product strategy
COMPANY
Traiana
