Startup Exchange Competition

Richard L. Sandor (Ph.D., Dr. sc. h. c.) is Chairman and CEO of the American Financial Exchange (AFX), an electronic exchange for direct interbank/financial institution lending and borrowing. He is also the CEO of Environmental Financial Products, which specializes in inventing, designing and developing new financial markets. EFP was established in 1998 and was the predecessor company and incubator to the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the European Climate Exchange (ECX), the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE) and the Tianjin Climate Exchange (TCX). Dr. Sandor is currently the Aaron Director Lecturer in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School and an Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong. He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University; Columbia University Graduate School of Business; and was a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Finance at the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University and a Visiting Fellow with the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University. He was honored by the City of Chicago for his universal recognition as the “father of financial futures”. In 2002 he was named by TIME Magazine a “Hero of the Planet”; and in 2007 as one of the magazine’s “Heroes of the Environment” for his work as the “Father of Carbon Trading.” In October 2013, Dr. Sandor was awarded the title of Chevalier dans l'ordre de la Légion d ́Honneur (Knight in the French National Order of the Legion of Honor), for his accomplishments in the field of environmental finance and carbon trading. He holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from the Advisory Board of the Center for Financial Stability, a Senior Fellow of the Milken Institute and a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Ronald Coase Centre for Property Rights Research at the University of Hong Kong. He served on the board of directors of leading commodities and futures exchanges such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) and Tianjin Climate Exchange (TCX). He was also a director of American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States. He served on the boards of several philanthropic and not-for-profit organizations such as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Clean Energy Trust. Dr. Sandor is the author of “Good Derivatives: A Story of Financial and Environmental Innovation”; the lead author of “Environmental Markets: A New Asset Class”, published by the CFA Institute Research Foundation; “Sustainable Investing and Environmental Markets: Opportunities in a New Asset Class” and “How I Saw It: Analysis and Commentary on Environmental Finance (1999–2005)” both published by World Scientific. His books have been translated in Chinese by People's Oriental Press. His latest book, “Electronic Trading and Blockchain: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”, is forthcoming by World Scientific in the spring of 2018 Dr. Sandor holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota.

Mark Haraburda has been CEO of Barchart since May 2016. He previously served as Managing Director of Business Development & Sales at Barchart from 2007. Mark is responsible for executing Barchart's growth strategy and vision as a leading provider of market data and financial technology to the financial, commodity and media industries. Prior to Barchart, Mark held business development and product management roles with the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) and Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Mark has a Master of Financial Markets degree from Illinois Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Bradley University.

Catherine Clay began her career in the '90s as a clerk in Interactive Brokers' market-making unit, Timber Hill, and progressed to Lead Market Maker and Director of Floor Trading and Operations. In 2006, she left Timber Hill to co-found Thales LLC, a market-making firm on the NYSE Options Floor and on the OneChicago single stock futures exchange. She joined Livevol, Inc. in 2010 as Chief Strategy Officer. At the time of Cboe's acquisition of Livevol in 2015, Catherine held the position of Chief Executive Officer. At Cboe, Catherine is Vice President of Integration Strategy and Operations, leading the effort to bring multi-asset information solutions and technology to market participants.

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Dave Ripley is the Chief Operating Officer for Kraken, the most trusted global digital asset exchange. Previously, Dave was Co-founder and CEO of Glidera, which was subsequently acquired by Kraken. Dave brings over 15 years of experience and expertise in financial services and technology. Prior to Glidera, Dave advised C-level executive teams of Fortune 500 corporations as a Principal with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Dave received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University) and his BS in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign).

Leon Stigter is a developer advocate at TIBCO Software, where he creates tools and technologies to help drive the (r)evolution of digital business. He is passionate about helping developers unlock the value of technology and about shaping the developer experience and ecosystem around open source software projects at TIBCO. He has held various positions in solutions consulting, product management, and product strategy with a penchant for Cloud and APIs. He contributed to both Project Flogo and Project Mashling, technologies that enable developers to create smarter, event-driven microservices and embedded machine learning capabilities that can be deployed across cloud, edge, and hybrid environments. Leon received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.

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Ravi is the Director of Risk & Derivatives and brings over 30 years of experience in options, quantitative trading and risk management across multiple asset classes and markets. He formerly ran the global FX and metals options trading desk for Republic National Bank and has more recently been involved in the enterprise risk area for several major banks including HSBC and BNY Mellon. Ravi holds a PRM (Professional Risk Management) certification from PRMIA (Professional Risk Managers’ International Association) with specialization in derivatives, quantitative strategies and alpha generation and takes special interest in volatility based strategies and electronic trading.

Ravi also founded and developed iVolatility.com, a revolutionary data service that provides all the information required by equity options traders for pre-trade analysis, post-trade decision support and risk management. He’s been quoted in publications including Barron’s and the Chicago Tribune.

He is on the forefront of cloud-based risk analytics for calculating real-time RegT and portfolio margin, along with universal spread ruling technology for complex option portfolios. He is very knowledgeable on intraday portfolio margin and real-time risk-based haircuts based on the OCC methodology.

David Russell is an analytics professional who currently holds responsibility as DataRobot’s Vice President of Operations. David has over 18 year experience focused on successful enterprise deployments in big data, predictive analytics, business intelligence, and high performance data-warehousing solutions. David’s core focus is on assisting customers in growing top-line revenue and/or decreasing operational overhead by leveraging data as a strategic asset. Currently, David is helping FinTech organizations leverage DataRobot’s modern, disruptive machine learning platform to create competitive advantages across a wide spectrum of data-driven use cases.

Kam He is a Director of Solution Consultant for Alibaba Cloud America, Kam is responsible for architect & solution for large enterprises in different verticals such as Automotive, Smart City, HPC, Media & Entertainment by using Alibaba Cloud cutting edge technologies eco-systems (such as IoT, Cloud, Big Data, AI and etc.). Kam joined Alibaba Cloud in the beginning of the 2018, before that he was the Sr. IT Director for SF Motors Inc. an EV company based in the Bay Area, where he drives IT and business innovation and IT strategy, such as building industry 4.0 value-chain road map, from connected cars to autonomous driving, digital R&D to smart manufacturing. Implemented industry 4.0 solutions that sit on the modern IT infrastructure, is secured, cloud-based, IoT-ready, and fully integrated with data available from the manufacturing floor (Robotics, PLC, HMI, Scada ) feeding to MES with well-thought out business processes and workflows that meet today's innovation and rapid product development needs.

Before joining the SF Motors, Kam was a solution architect in the Advisory group for EY (Ernst & Young), where he led many large projects from architecture design, system integration to production go-live. Kam also spent a decade working for the largest utility company in New England (Boston) as a Data Architect, and Sr. Principal Consult for Oracle Corp.

Kam received Masters in Business from Babson College in Wellesley, MA and Bachelor of Engineering in electrical engineering from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

Andrew Parsons is a Senior Data Scientist at Quandl, a leading financial and alternative data platform. Andrew evaluates and productizes new alternative data sources to extract alpha and valuable financial insights for Quandl users. He brings years of buy-side experience to the alternative data space, having previously worked in risk management and advisory services at The Carlyle Group‘s hedge fund of funds unit, and quantitative research roles at Qubd Capital and Breton Hill Capital. Andrew has a Master of Finance (MFin) from the Rotman School at University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.

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Zach Smolinski is an attorney with a strong interest in emerging technologies. His practice helps clients with a wide variety of tech law matters. Mr. Smolinski's practice areas include the evaluation and negotiation of license agreements and cloud services contracts, IP due diligence for investors and purchasers, and working with company founders and executives to optimize their companies' approaches to intellectual property. Mr. Smolinski is a registered patent attorney with a background in physics and he frequently speaks on intellectual property matters of importance to founders, executives, and investors of technology-focused companies. He coordinates a monthly blockchain series to provide a regular forum for discussion and collaboration within the Chicago blockchain community.

Melvin is a Digital Strategy Leader with 15 years experience in both the public and private domain. His expertise is in rapid application development and proof of concept design for cutting edge, high-profile, strategic engagements. He specializes in helping executives avoid IT complexity risk and evaluating market products to support efficient software integration design and business workflow automation. Melvin spends considerable time organizing and hosting regional conferences and seminars on the subject of blockchain and DLT’s impact to the digital economy. He is a published writer and speaker who works diligently in the blockchain community to connect and align incentives for local talent and investment.

Mercaris is the only place for market data & on-line trading for organic, non-GMO and other Identity-preserved ag commodities.

Kellee James is Founder & CEO of Mercaris, a market data service and on-line trading platform for organic, non-GMO and other identity-preserved ag commodities. Prior to Mercaris, Kellee spent five years at the start-up company Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the first electronic trading platform and registry for spot, futures and options on carbon, sulfur, clean energy and other environmental derivatives. In 2009 she was appointed by President Barack Obama as a White House Fellow and was Crain’s Chicago Business Magazine ’40 under 40’ rising leader.

Previously, Kellee worked with commodity banks in Latin America on risk management and income diversification strategies. Kellee is an Aspen Institute Catto Environmental Fellow and has also served on the board of Net Impact, a membership organization of more than 12,000 MBA professionals committed to sustainability through corporate responsibility. Kellee received her MBA and MA in International Development from American University in Washington, D.C., and completed a BA in Spanish from the University of Kentucky.

Coinifide is a P2P cryptocurrency exchange platform helping users and businesses acquire, manage and liquidate cryptocurrency more efficiently and cost effectively. Through education and enhanced security protocols we ensure sound investment decision making while enhancing liquidity. Our mission is to create an easy to use platform that eliminates the risks, challenges and limitations as offered by existing market solutions.

KTS Operations identifies the inflow and output of data throughout an organization as a workflow that could not only be automated, but can be called upon to help make actionable decisions. Data workflow is expected to evolve as a business evolves and our use of newer technologies allow for these changes to appear fluidly and without heavy development costs. Paired with a software as a service model and a support team dedicated to managing the data workflow of an organization, the final product is made to be unique and to cater to a range of different clients and services.

Backed by a collective of more than 10 years of experience in developing and supporting Fin-Tech software and two years of dedicated development and testing, we are looking to grow our support team and initial client base.

BIO
Biju Kulathakal is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Halo Investing, the first and fastest-growing independent multi-issuer technology platform for Structured Notes.

Biju was also a co-founder of Redbox, the movie-rental kiosk; founder and past CEO of TradingBlock Holdings, an online brokerage firm; and a Venture Partner at OCA Venture Partners. Biju received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and lives in Chicago, IL.

SPEAKING TOPIC

Biju is well-positioned to speak to the way that fintech will continue to disrupt financial markets in newer and more interesting ways than ever before. Halo Investing accomplishes this on two fronts with one simple goal: making investing safer and simpler for everyone. As the first independent digital marketplace for structured notes, Halo lowers fees and gives retail investors access to a defined-outcome investing product that was previously only available to the ultra-high net worth and institutional investors. By working with issuing banks, Halo can reduce costs and open Structured Notes to a new pool of investors.

Fintech trends have moved far beyond robo-advisers and peer-to-peer payment systems, to meet new and unique needs within the wealth management landscape. Halo has successfully demonstrated that Structured Notes are an attractive way for the everyday investor to weather the ups and downs of a market environment characterized by an increase in volatility.

Biju can shed light on how innovation across the value chain brings down costs and broadens the scope of investment opportunities for future generations.

UCX is the “PriceLine for the Cloud”, providing organizations the most efficient way to buy cloud resources based upon their exact needs at the most competitive prices. UCX, Cloud Buying Made Easy

Lucena Connects Big Data Providers with Investment Professionals Seeking Deeper Insight through Advanced Data Intelligence. We deliver actionable insights to investment professionals who seek to bring artificial intelligence to investing. Our decision support platform aggregates signals from leading big-data providers and enables investment professionals to find and exploit market opportunities with precision, and scientifically validating their investment approaches before risking capital.

Mike Wisnefski has been a technology innovator in the commodity trading business, for more than 20 years. In addition to co-founding MaterialsXchange, Mike is owner of STX Trading, a proprietary firm that specializes in lumber futures and options. His deep understanding of trading market dynamics was developed over the years as an independent market maker on the CME floor and at prop firms DE Trading Group and DRW. Mike was also VP of Business Development for Bloch Lumber, a wholesale lumber distributor, where he expanded the risk management program and developed an overseas lumber import department.

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Tipigo is a Fintech startup, focused on solving a problem wealth managers and retail investors have in common: Quality and tailored fundamental analysis is expensive to produce and hard to come by, causing wealth managers to lose a huge part of potential market, and retail investors to fall short on their potential revenues. Tipigo developed an AI-based platform designed to locate outperforming investment opportunities, based on analyst ratings, company financials and other fundamental data. We provide decision support systems in B2B, B2B2C, and B2C models, allowing different types of investors (wealth managers, self directed investors, retail investors) to get TAILORED, REAL-TIME, TOP QUALITY investment opportunities - offering a solution to a long standing problem.

TrendyTrade wants to universalize the financial markets by helping traders and individual investors gain access to real-time information, smart insights, trading advisory and market sentiment analysis made by our algorithm to improve their decision-making. We present all with simplicity leaving away the traditional financial outlook. With the Pro version, a top-notch trading team works for our users and gives around 15 trading ideas a week, with specific buy/sell points, and precise analysis.

Peak Soil Indexes (PSI) is focused on the development of usable farmland indexes that act as the foundation for ETF and OTC offerings. With few “big picture” themes remaining, investment vehicles are often launched from indices that represent but a thin section of a broader market. PSI designs indexes for an in-demand, strategic commodity that investors have limited access to. Additionally, all PSI indices are supported with a relative value analytics app that can be thought of as a Bloomberg for farmland.

SixJupiter is an artificial intelligence service for investors. The company currently publishes a newsletter to help individual investors find US equities with high growth potential, and is working to continue growing its intelligence to ultimately provide high quality, personalized investment advice and consultation to investors at prices affordable to investors of all stripes.

PanXchange is a web-based OTC physical commodity trading platform. Designed by a veteran Cargill trader, the software platform allows buyers and sellers to negotiate specific details of a trade, including the location and timing of delivery and the exact quantity and quality of the commodity -- all of it anonymously, in real time, with counterpart management and no costs related to clearing and regulation. Based in Denver, the company has successfully piloted its platform in world market sugar and U.S. feed grains. PanXchange has been live in East Africa for nearly three years, offering the negotiation and trade of more than 25 different agricultural commodities. In October 2017, PanXchange successfully launched the first ever platform for the negotiation and trade of the 100 million ton proppant market (frac sand). In December 2017, PanXchange began issuing an official price assessment methodology for an FOB Odessa, TX benchmark price. This price is published on a weekly basis, initially offering week-ahead spot prices for FOB Odessa. PanXchange is protected by two U.S. patents, with four more pending, and was selected in 2016 as a Futures Industry Association Innovator.

UpTick Technology, LLC is a provider of real-time, Excel-integrated messaging solutions to the trading industry. UpTick personnel have decades of experience both trading and building mission-critical systems for trading operations of all sizes. In 2017 UpTick released its flagship product, UpTickXL, which enables businesses to quickly and securely integrate any system or data source with Excel. UpTick is developing a number of applications that extend UpTickXL with rich functionality for traders, risk managers, compliance officers and operations personnel. UpTick also offers consulting services related to UpTickXL component development and integration with proprietary and 3rd-party systems.

Craig Fuller is the CEO and Founder of FreightWaves, a data intelligence and financial products company serving the freight industry. Founded in 2016, the company’s products include: FreightWaves.com, the number one independent media website in freight with over 4.5 million impressions per month; Sonar, a robust data platform capable of providing unique and predictive insights into the trucking industry; and TransRisk trucking futures contracts that will soon be listed on a major commodities exchange. In addition to its core focus areas, the company is also the founder of Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), a consortium of technology enterprises, manufacturers, carriers, and logistics technology organizations committed to implementing blockchain technology in transportation.

Prior to founding FreightWaves, he was the founder and CEO of TransCard, a fleet payment processor that was sold to US Bank. He also has been deep in the industry, having founded and managed the largest provider of on-demand trucking services in North America, the Xpress Direct division of US Xpress Enterprises.

About Tony

One of the best-known pioneer names in the industry, globally renowned business leader, serial entrepreneur, investor in ~100 companies, LiquidPoint, ITI, Efficient Capital founder, market wizard, CHX Board.

Internationally renowned business leader, multi-faceted serial entrepreneur, option trading pioneer, and shareholder, operator and investor in nearly 100 companies. Master trader at CBOE where he also served on Board of Directors. The only options trader to be featured in the seminal work “Market Wizards” showcasing the world’s best pro traders.

Founder of International Trading Institute; built and delivered first options simulator and pioneered training pro traders and market makers worldwide for 25 years. Sole founder and CEO of LiquidPoint, a trading platform, broker and solution provider; sold to Convergex for mid nine-figure sum. Founding member of key companies in the trading industry such as Efficient Capital Management – the premier managed futures firm as well as key non-trading- specific technology firms such as Fortify Technologies. Board member of the Chicago Stock Exchange.

Maintains global team of staffers, 24x7 ops center in CA and offices around the world in the US, the UK, India and China. Helps companies achieve high rates of growth and identifies initiatives to unlock exponential value.

Company Overview: Matrix Execution Technologies

Mercury Digital Assets is a sister company of Matrix Executions. It is a hybrid that handles OTC (high-touch) cryptocurrency execution. Mercury has next generation technology for sell-side order handling of spot, futures, and soon-to-handle options, when options are available.

Anthony was one of the youngest members in the history of CME Group and was an early adopter of electronic trading. Anthony remains a member of CME and hosts the widely popular Podcast, Futures Radio Show where he shares his extensive market experience as a Futures trader and interviews influential traders, brokers and CEO’s in the financial industry. Currently, Futures Radio Show is the top ranked Futures Trading Podcast on Google and iTunes.

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Rumi Morales is a pioneer in identifying and cultivating the emerging technologies that will define the future of finance. As Head of CME Ventures, she launched and led one of the most successful corporate venture capital units in financial technology, investing in the “tech that will become fintech.” An early specialist in digital currency, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, Rumi is also a leading early investor in artificial intelligence, deep learning, predictive analytics, and quantum computing as they will affect the financial industry. A proven entrepreneur herself, Rumi established the Global Markets Institute during her tenure at Goldman Sachs, and also launched a leading economic research firm in Singapore. She began her career in venture capital in London, Kuala Lumpur and New York, and has invested across three continents and lived in seven countries. Currently based in Chicago, Illinois, Rumi is actively involved in that city’s burgeoning technology and entrepreneurial community, building upon Chicago’s long and important legacy of financial innovation. An accomplished and dynamic public speaker, Rumi has presented onstage at major conferences globally, including Innovate Finance, CB Insights Future of Fintech, and Consensus, and has been featured on Bloomberg Television and Institutional Investor magazine. Institutional Investor also noted her as one the “most powerful dealmakers in financial technology” two years in a row, and Crain’s recognized her in their esteemed “40 Under 40” list. Rumi received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received her MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.

Jean Donnelly is the FinTech Sandbox Executive Director who comes from Fidelity Investments, GE Capital, and EnerNOC. With a background in insurance operations and process excellence in both financial services and clean tech, she has worked in both small startups as well as established industry makers. Jean likes to get things done whether it be completing business initiatives, reducing turnaround times, or bringing new businesses onboard. She looks forward to assisting FinTech Sandbox build a vibrant community.

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Rory Manchee, Principal Consultant – Market Data & Research, Brave New Coin. Often the first contact point for many of our clients, Rory brings a wealth of business knowledge and commercial expertise to his role. He has considerable experience of the data and information industry, having held senior management and leadership roles at Standard & Poor’s and Thomson Reuters. Rory is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and as an independent consultant and advisor specializes in helping clients design and grow their businesses with a focus on strategy, business development, stakeholder management and product commercialisation.

Ben manages the Rise FinTech Platform for the Barclays Group Innovation Office. In the last few months he has been responsible for delivering the Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars – a 13-week intensive program for early stage growth driven companies, aimed at bringing new technologies into the bank. Currently he is recruiting for the next New York cohort of the Barclays Accelerator whilst growing out the physical presence of the Rise Studio space in the Flatiron district in New York and directly innovating on the technology that powers Barclays Innovation Initiatives. With a degree in Computing Science and Business Management from the University of Glasgow, Ben joined Barclays in 2014 after working for a semantic technology business in Darmstadt, Germany. As a developer at Barclays Ben built out a frontend framework for design components. He then joined innovation through which he’s been involved in over 25 projects having worked for the global bank in Glasgow, London, Northampton, Frankfurt and New York. There’s various ways you can get involved with Rise, created by Barclays; as an serial entrepreneur, an angel investor, a founder or mid-sized to larger corporate. Don’t hesitate to reach out to Ben directly.

Kester Keating is an investment executive at Barclays based in New York and covers all US strategic investments. He has ten years capital markets experience and announced deals he has led include Cloud9 Technologies, Neptune Networks, Anthemis and H20. He is a board member at BIDS Trading and Cloud9. Prior to Barclays he was a strategy consultant at Oliver Wyman. He has a master’s degree from Columbia University and bachelor’s degree from Oxford University.

Russ is the Founder of Vision Pursue or VP. VP helps individuals and organizations create a Performance Mindset through their training and mobile app. Before founding Vision Pursue, Russ was the COO at the hedge fund Emil van Essen. Before that he was part of the executive team that took the trading software firm, Trading Technologies, Inc. (TT), from a 20-person startup to a 650-person global company as CFO, CIO, and EVP of Global Buyside Sales. Russ lives in Chicago.