TraderForum 2019: The ETF Revolution

Lewis Knox

Executive Director

Institutional Investor, Inc.

Lew Knox is Executive Director of TraderForum and Financial Technology Forum (FTF), membership groups run by Institutional Investor. As executive director, Knox is responsible for product content and event programming. Before joining II Memberships, he was assistant managing editor, technology and development at Institutional Investor magazine, where he was responsible for technology coverage and for developing new research features. Before taking over the technology beat, Knox was the research editor at the magazine, where he was responsible for the editorial components of II’s signature research rankings, including the All-America Research Team. He is on his second tour at II: from 1984 until 1997, he worked in various divisions of the company, including a 10-year stint in Newsletters, where he was part of the team that launched Global Money Management and Derivatives Week. Knox has an A.B. in romance languages and literatures from Princeton University.

Richard Vigsnes

Global Head of Equity Trading

Northern Trust Global Investments

Richard A. Vigsnes is a Senior Vice President at Northern Trust Global Investments in Chicago. He heads the global equity trading effort for NTGI as well as executing for the Transition Management International group. Rich previously worked at UBS in Stamford, Connecticut from 1992 to 2004, most recently as an Executive Director.Rich received a BA degree in Economics from North Central College and a MS degree in Financial Economics from Marquette University.

Sean O'Brien

Managing Director, Equity Trading

Merrill Lynch

Will Llamas

Director, Relationship Manager

Greenwich Associates

Will Llamas is responsible for supporting Greenwich Associates’ relationship management and marketing initiatives with key decision-makers at priority buy-side institutions. Will, who is also an avid chef and a private volleyball coach, graduated from Elon University with a BSBA in Marketing with a minor in Finance.

Andrew Conroy

iShares Markets Coverage Team

iShares by BlackRock

Andrew Conroy, Vice President, is a member of the iShares Markets Coverage Group. Mr. Conroy works in iShares Markets Coverage Group and is focused on iShares' Fixed Income Relative Value initiative as part of the broader Financial Instruments Strategy.The Markets Coverage team seeks to protect and grow trading in iShares funds by actively monitoring and improving the ETF ecosystem, which encompasses investors, broker-dealers, market-makers, trading venues and technology providers. The team also delivers trading and market structure expertise to clients, advising on the most effective way to access liquidity for a desired exposure, relative value of ETFs compared to other financial instruments such as futures, swaps and fixed income securities, and how to utilize ETFs as the reference asset in derivatives. Prior to joining BlackRock in December 2014, Mr. Conroy was a trader and portfolio manager at Swiss Re focusing on structured credit and correlation. Prior to that, he traded investment grade and emerging market credit for Wachovia's principal credit group. He began his career at Bloomberg in their transaction products group.Mr. Conroy earned a BA in Political Science from Villanova University.

Bill Stush

Managing Director, Head of Institutional Trading

Flow Traders B.V.

Bill is responsible for all aspects of Flow Traders US Institutional Trading. This includes oversight of the Institutional sales and distribution strategy for the firm’s ETF liquidity business. Bill also manages relationships with key partners, including ETF Issuers. Prior to joining Flow Traders in May 2016, he was a managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he held several roles including head of ETF distribution and head of portfolio trading for the Americas.

Michael Clements

Chief Trader

Employees Retirement System of Texas

Damon Walvoord

Co-Head, ETF Group

Susquehanna International

Damon Walvoord is co-Head of the ETF Group at Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and a 12 year veteran of the Firm. As such, Mr. Walvoord is jointly responsible for several ETF-related activities including oversight of the Firm's ETF lead market making and exchange-related business, ETF issuer relationships, ETF customer trading (through SIG affiliate Susquehanna Financial Group, or SFG), global equity portfolio trading (also SFG), and other strategic ETF initiatives. Prior to his current role forming and running the ETF Group, Mr. Walvoord helped build out the SFG sell-side brokerage business, after beginning his capital markets career as an ETF and index options trader in the SIG training program. Mr. Walvoord is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Philosophy.

Eric M. Pollackov

Global Head of ETF Capital Markets

Invesco

Eric Pollackov is Global Head of ETF Capital Markets for Invesco ETFs In this role, Mr. Pollackov proactively develops relationships with sell-side trading desks, implements Invesco ETF capital markets strategies and develops and measures the success of client business plans.Before joining Invesco in 2016, Mr. Pollackov was Head of ETF Capital Markets for Charles Schwab. Previously, he served as managing director of exchange-traded products at NYSE Euronext. He began his career in 1999 as a derivatives trader for Susquehanna International Group, specializing in ETFs.Mr. Pollackov earned a bachelor’s degree from The State University of New York at Buffalo and holds the Series 7 and 24 registrations.

Peter O'Malley

Global Portfolio Trading and Head of US ETF Distribution

Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Peter is head of US ETF Distribution and an Equity Global Portfolio Products Sales Trader at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In this role he is responsible for targeting clients across all portfolio products solutions including ETF’s, portfolio rebalancing and asset allocation.Peter re-joined the firm in 2013 after having worked for Bank of America Securities from 2005-2008. In between he worked at both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in global portfolio products sales roles. Earlier in his career he did Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) sales for ITG Inc. He started his career doing quantitative research for a division of Reuters.Peter holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and a B.S. in Finance from Syracuse University.

Sandor Lehoczky

Partner and Global Co-Head of Trading

Jane Street

Sandor Lehoczky is a partner at the firm as well as a founder of its algorithmic and statistical equity trading and quantitative research departments. In addition to managing firm-wide risk and strategy, he also oversees a significant proportion of Jane Street’s trading.Sandor is a former math Olympian and one of the authors of The Art of Problem Solving, a series of textbooks for high-level young math students. He also co-founded the Art of Problem Solving Initiative, a nonprofit focused on providing an on-ramp to the highest level of mathematics for talented underprivileged students. Publications including Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times, covered the Initiative’s signature program, Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics.Prior to joining Jane Street, Sandor traded index arbitrage in the tech space during the final years of the late-1990s Internet bubble, and was an equity options trader on the floor of the CBOE. He also served for nearly a decade on the board of the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine, including six years as treasurer.Sandor received an A.B. with honors in physics from Princeton University. He and his wife raise four kids in New York City, where he also coaches three youth soccer teams.

Brendan Ahern

Chief Investment Officer

Krane Shares

Brendan Ahern is the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at KraneShares where he is in charge of the firm’s research, education and investor outreach efforts. He was an early pioneer of the US exchange traded fund (ETF) industry as one of the first 20 employees of iShares by BlackRock. Within iShares, Brendan experienced the proliferation of ETFs and the growth of the ETF industry firsthand.During his tenure at iShares he saw AUM grow from a few billion to $1.5 trillion. This “from the ground up” experience forged his comprehensive expertise with all aspects of the ETF industry including product development, marketing, branding, and business strategy. Brendan’s role at KraneShares ensures he visits China frequently. He is a veracious consumer of Chinese financial news and is in regular contact with the firm’s Chinese partners.Brendan is considered a preeminent expert in global financial markets with a particular focus on China, and is often sought after by leading business and financial outlets including but not limited to CNBC, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily.Brendan graduated from the College of the Holy Cross and has a Master of Science in Financial Analysis from the University of San Francisco.

Joan Stack

Head Trader, Equities

Ohio Public Employees Retirement System

Joan Stack is the trading manager at the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, in Columbus. The retirement system manages about $76 billion in pension-fund assets, including about $37.6 billion in equities. OPERS primarily invests in global bonds and equities, real estate and private equities as well as opportunistic assets. Its trading desk utilizes a Charles River order-management system and a FlexTrade Systems Inc. execution management system.Stack joined the retirement system in October 2003. She previously spent four years at ING Corp., where she was the senior vice president and head of equity trading. She began her trading career at Bankers Trust, where she traded fixed income, equity and derivative instruments.Stack earned a BA in economics from Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Mass. She also earned an MBA in finance from Fordham University, in New York. She is a member of the National Organization of Investment Professionals.

Salvatore Licata

Director of Strategic Initiatives

ETF Global

Salvatore Licata is the Director of Strategic Initiatives for ETF Global where he leads the data strategy team. In this role, Sal is responsible for establishing the overarching strategic direction of the firm’s data offering and inevitably fulfilling upon this vision.Since joining the firm in 2016, Sal has been integral to the growth and development of the company’s ETF reference data business. During his tenure, ETFG has significantly expanded both its geographic data coverage, as well as, the datasets the firm offers. Sal has cultivated key partnerships with asset managers worldwide to ensure that ETF Global’s data offering continues to reflect direct sourcing and the requisite quality to which our clients have become accustomed.Sal and his team are currently concluding the most recent data footprint expansion to include the European and Asian listed Exchange-Traded Products to now provide ETFG with comprehensive global ETP coverage.Sal works from the company’s New York office and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College.

Lewis Knox

Executive Director

Institutional Investor, Inc.

Lew Knox is Executive Director of TraderForum and Financial Technology Forum (FTF), membership groups run by Institutional Investor. As executive director, Knox is responsible for product content and event programming. Before joining II Memberships, he was assistant managing editor, technology and development at Institutional Investor magazine, where he was responsible for technology coverage and for developing new research features. Before taking over the technology beat, Knox was the research editor at the magazine, where he was responsible for the editorial components of II’s signature research rankings, including the All-America Research Team. He is on his second tour at II: from 1984 until 1997, he worked in various divisions of the company, including a 10-year stint in Newsletters, where he was part of the team that launched Global Money Management and Derivatives Week. Knox has an A.B. in romance languages and literatures from Princeton University.

Hope M. Jarkowski

Co-Head of Government Affairs

Intercontinental Exchange

Hope is the Co-Head of Government Affairs for Intercontinental Exchange, parent company to the New York Stock Exchange, resident in the DC Office. In this capacity, Hope leads Intercontinental Exchange’s government relations matters before the SEC and related committees of jurisdiction on Capitol Hill. Hope began her career in the Office of the General Counsel at FINRA then transitioned to private securities law practice at a Fortune 100 law firm. Hope left the private sector for public service at the SEC in 2010, just before the passage of Dodd-Frank. As a senior lawyer in the Office of General Counsel, and later as Counsel to Commissioner Troy Paredes, Hope provided counsel on the Commission's rulemaking and enforcement efforts and served as Commissioner Paredes' liaison to Commission senior SEC staff as well as external constituencies, including members of Congress. Following her SEC service, Hope joined the Senate Banking Committee as Senior Counsel for Securities for then-Ranking Member Mike Crapo.

Rich Steiner

Head of Client Advocacy and Market Innovation

RBC Capital Markets

Rich Steiner leads RBC Capital Markets’ efforts to foster an open and honest dialogue on equity market developments with government officials and actively engages clients to develop a truly unique offering. He leads RBC’s equity market structure advocacy efforts, focusing on more efficient, more transparent, less-conflicted markets and works closely with RBC’s Regulatory and Government Affairs team in Washington, DC. Additionally, Rich helps to capitalize on RBC’s innovation capabilities by connecting clients with fintech offerings through a partnership with RBC’s West Coast Innovation Team. He also drives various strategic innovation initiatives across RBC Global Markets, Investment Banking, Wealth Management, and City National Bank.Rich joined RBC in 2009 and was one of the key founding members of RBC's THOR electronic trading platform, as well as Head of Market Structure Strategy. He currently serves on a number of industry groups, including the SIFMA Equity Markets & Trading Committee and National Organization of Investment Professionals (NOIP). Prior to joining RBC, Rich held electronic and program trading positions at BNP Paribas, ITG and Goldman Sachs.

Tyler Gellasch

Executive Director

Healthy Markets Assocation

Tyler Gellasch is a financial services policy professional and securities lawyer with senior-level public and private sector experience.  Gellasch’s public service included five years in the US Senate, first as Counsel for securities, banking, and tax matters for Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), and later as Senior Counsel to the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). Gellasch was intimately involved in drafting several high-profile pieces of legislation, including the Volcker Rule provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, the crowdfunding provisions of the JOBS Act, and the securities law provisions of the STOCK Act. He also assisted with several Senate hearings and reports, including a landmark hearing in December 2010 on the stability and integrity of the US capital markets and a hearing and report in November 2014 on banks’ involvement with physical commodities. Gellasch’s government service also included a year as Counsel to then-new SEC Commissioner Kara M. Stein, whom he advised on equities and fixed income market reforms, the Volcker Rule, derivatives reforms, corporate disclosure reforms, Regulation A, Regulation D, and other matters.  In private practice, Gellasch has served as a General Counsel for WR Hambrecht + Co., as well as associate at Mayer Brown LLP and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP. Gellasch is Founder of Myrtle Makena, LLC, a consulting firm, where he counsels clients on a variety of capital markets issues.

Craig Hurl

Director

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

Craig Hurl is Director, Equity Trading and Alpha/Beta Strategies in the TAA department at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. As of August 2008, Craig became Head of Equity Trading, which is responsible for all agency trading within the Fund. He is also responsible for the Equity Beta Management portfolios, and specific value add strategies, which include Merger Arbitrage, Pairs Trading and Systematic derivatives programs.Prior to his current role, he was Director, Enhanced Index and Income Trusts, where he managed the Canadian Enhanced Index portfolio, an Income Trust portfolio, along with other global enhanced index strategies.Prior to joining Teachers’ in June 1997, Craig was Manager, Index Operations at the Toronto Stock Exchange, where he worked for ten years. Craig graduated from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada with a Bachelor of Arts double major in Management Economics. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder, and is a member of the Toronto CFA Society.

Curt Engler

Head Trader - Americas

J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Joan Stack

Head Trader, Equities

Ohio Public Employees Retirement System

Joan Stack is the trading manager at the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, in Columbus. The retirement system manages about $76 billion in pension-fund assets, including about $37.6 billion in equities. OPERS primarily invests in global bonds and equities, real estate and private equities as well as opportunistic assets. Its trading desk utilizes a Charles River order-management system and a FlexTrade Systems Inc. execution management system.Stack joined the retirement system in October 2003. She previously spent four years at ING Corp., where she was the senior vice president and head of equity trading. She began her trading career at Bankers Trust, where she traded fixed income, equity and derivative instruments.Stack earned a BA in economics from Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Mass. She also earned an MBA in finance from Fordham University, in New York. She is a member of the National Organization of Investment Professionals.