Celoxica Holdings plc (AIM: CXA) a leading provider of low latency trading solutions, has appointed John Oddie to the board as non-executive director and to take on the role of acting chief technology officer. In addition, Jean-Marc Bouhelier, who joined the board as a non-executive director in October 2007 takes on the chairmanship of the company and chief operating officer Antoine Rescourio becomes company secretary.
John has over 25 years’ experience of working in the financial services sector with particular focus on market trading, Celoxica’s key target market. Until 2007, John ran the exchange business for Atos Euronext Market Solutions (AEMS), the largest business unit of the firm, which provides technology and services for global exchanges, clearing houses and capital markets. Prior to this, he was the executive vice president of Instinet’s Global Equities business and has also held senior technology roles at Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch.
In addition to his appointment as non-executive director, John will also be stepping into the role of acting chief technology officer for Celoxica.
Lee Staines, chief executive of Celoxica commented, “As with the appointment of John-Marc Bouhelier at the end of 2007, John’s extensive expertise in the financial markets makes him an ideal addition to the board as Celoxica continues its focus on providing solutions for proprietary traders, market makers and trading exchanges. John has spent the last few months advising Celoxica on its new business strategy for taking full advantage of the business opportunity in this sector. His belief in our technology is further validation of the benefits it can bring to our target market and his guidance and experience will be highly valuable to the company going forward.”
John Oddie, non-executive director added, “Having spent my career working in financial service organisations, I am fully aware of the need for high volume data processing and especially the need for acceleration, low latency and data consistency in today’s highly competitive electronic trading environments. I have been highly impressed by Celoxica’s technology and believe it can provide firms in the sector with a definite competitive edge. Its solutions have the ability to make a real impact in the way data is received and then used when trading in the rapidly expanding and volatile options and cash markets. I am looking forward to helping Celoxica realise this potential.”
Antoine Rescourio, who joined Celoxica as chief operating officer in May 2008, combines more than 20 years’ experience, working at an executive management level, in both capital markets (for the buy side, sell side and exchanges) and financial technology providers. Previously Antoine was chief operating officer at a leading hedge fund; senior vice president at AEMS; and vice president at Morgan Stanley, where he spent eight years. His earlier career includes ten years in telecommunications management with Reuters. Antoine’s solid background spans IT, operations, finance, mergers & acquisitions and Celoxica will benefit from his proven ability to deliver strategic, multi-disciplinary projects globally and create productive business units to meet shareholder expectations.