Liquidnet, the global institutional trading network, has appointed John Kelly as COO and member of the leadership team effective immediately. Kelly will be responsible for driving revenue across all of Liquidnets businesses globally.
He will be based in New York and report directly to Seth Merrin, founder and CEO of Liquidnet.
John possesses the skills and diverse experience that we have been looking for in a COO, says Merrin. With more than three decades of leadership roles in equity capital markets, investment banking, and trading, I look forward to John playing a significant role in helping us enter new business segments, expand our capital markets business and accelerate the growth of our institutional trading network globally.
Most recently, Kelly worked directly with John L. Thornton, former president of Goldman Sachs, providing advisory services to private investors and management around the world. Prior to that, he held several senior positions at Socit Gnrale in the U.S., including head of Capital Markets, COO of the U.S. investment banking business and head of Portfolio Management for SG Americas.
Kelly has also held leadership positions at Rockefeller Family & Associates, where he managed private equity investments; Bear Stearns, where he was head of Asian Fixed Income Capital Markets; and The First Boston Corporation (now Credit Suisse), where he was a founding member of the Capital Markets Group. He also served on the board of The Victory Portfolios, a $13 billion mutual fund complex, and is a director of AmeriCares, a humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization.
I am excited to join the Liquidnet team at this particularly dynamic time in the market, Kelly says. One of the hallmarks of the Liquidnet culture is the conviction that innovation can change the way business is done, even in the face of significant obstacles. I am looking forward to working with the entire Liquidnet team to pursue growth opportunities while further enhancing the remarkably strong platform that Liquidnet has built to serve the worlds leading asset management firms.
Kelly has a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Yale University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Liquidnet also named Lugene Forte as head of Sales and Trading Operations in the U.S. In this role, Forte will have complete oversight of the U.S. Equities business, reporting directly to Kelly. She will also join the Liquidnet leadership team.
Lugene brings a wide range of experience and insight to this role and the equities trading business overall, Kelly says. Lugene and her team will deliver enhanced and solution-focused offerings that continue to give our Members a competitive advantage over their peers.
(CG)