AcadiaSoft, which provides margin automation for counterparties in the OTC derivatives market, has appointed Chris Walsh as COO responsible for the day-to-day business operations of the company.
Walsh most recently was a senior vice president of the technologies division of NYSE Euronext. Previously, he was global head of order management and strategy at NYFIX, prior to the firms acquisition by NYSE Euronext. Before that, he was a founder of Radius Partners, a financial messaging software provider that was later acquired by Fundtech Corporation.
In the 1990s, Walsh held a number of management roles at Thomson Financials Electronic Settlements Group, where he built, launched and grew its suite of post-trade messaging services, a field in which he holds a number of patents. He was also instrumental in the formation of Omgeo, the joint venture between the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Thomson Reuters providing post-trade processing solutions.
Several of the AcadiaSoft executives are former Omgeo and Thomson executives, including Director Howard Edelstein, who founded Omgeo and was former CEO of NYFIX, BT Radianz and Omgeo-predecessor Thomson ESG. AcadiaSoft Co-Founder Dan Moyse also worked at Thomson.
Chris breadth of knowledge in the financial services industry, which spans many areas including trading, investment accounting as well as middle- and back-office operations, will strengthen AcadiaSofts position as our company continues to carry a large percentage of the OTC market on MarginSphere, says Craig Welch, co-founder and CEO of AcadiaSoft.
AcadiaSofts flagship product, MarginSphere, is a central messaging service that provides electronic exchange of margin calls, substitutions and interest statements between derivatives counterparties engaged in collateral management.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley recently joined MarginSphere, joining Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and J.P. Morgan, which helped develop the platform. Buy-side firms including Bluebay Asset Management, Cheyne Capital Management and Goldman Sachs Asset Management have also joined.
MarginSphere automates the margin confirmation process, reducing inefficiencies and managing risk.
I am thrilled to become a part of the AcadiaSoft team, Walsh says. Counterparty credit risk is a major issue today, and it is an exciting time to join AcadiaSoft as the rapid growth of MarginSphere confirms the important need for an automated messaging system for collateral management.
Global Custodian featured MarginSphere in the Winter Plus 2012 story “How to automate a margin call.”
(CG)