Liquidnet, the electronic marketplace for institutional-only block trading, announced today the appointment of its Asian leadership team that will drive the company's expansion into Asian equities.
The team brings a combined 75 years of experience in Asian and global equities to Liquidnet, and is comprised of: John Barker, Managing Director of Liquidnet Europe Limited; David Klinger, Managing Director Liquidnet Asia Limited; Eisuke Hattori, Managing Director of Liquidnet Japan Inc.; and Yasuaki Hayashi, Operations Director of Liquidnet Japan Inc.
"With our leadership team in place, Liquidnet is well on its way to launching Asian equity trading in 2007," said Seth Merrin, CEO of Liquidnet. "Upon launching Asian equities, Liquidnet will have created the first global institutional marketplace. The buy side needs a global marketplace built exclusively to fulfill its specific requirements for anonymity and large executions. Liquidnet's Members in the U.S., Canada and Europe have major stakes in Asia, and they have encouraged us to add Asian equities to the current list of 15 equity markets they already trade in Liquidnet," added Merrin.
John Barker
Based in Liquidnet's London office, Barker serves as head of the company's European operations and is responsible for penetrating the institutional trading markets throughout the UK, Europe and Asia. Prior to joining Liquidnet in June 2001, Barker served as Head of Equity Operations for Tokyo-Mitsubishi International - a Japanese international bank based in London - and as Head of Trade Support for Deutsche Bank, also in London. From 1988 until 1998, Barker served as Director of Operations of Instinet Global Services Limited. While there, he was responsible for the implementation of Instinet's SETS trading capability in London, the introduction of the CREST settlement system throughout the UK and Ireland and the remote membership model used with the Swedish Stock Exchange. Barker has also served in leadership roles at Yamaichi International (Europe), and Midland Bank/HSBC.
David Klinger
Klinger joined Liquidnet in June 2006 to head up the company's Asian (ex Japan) business, based in Hong Kong. Prior to joining Liquidnet, Klinger worked at Credit Suisse from 1999 to 2006, spending the last five years in Credit Suisse's Hong Kong office as head of Asia Pacific execution services. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Klinger was head of Westpac Investment Management's dealing room in Australia.
Eisuke Hattori
Hattori joined Liquidnet in March 2006 to head up the company's Japanese business, based in Tokyo. Prior to working at Liquidnet, he was a consultant with Global Alliance Partners, where he offered strategic advice to U.S. securities companies looking to commence operations in Japan. From 1997 to 2003, Hattori worked at UBS Tokyo, where he headed their institutional equity sales team. From 1988 to 1997, Hattori worked in a variety of institutional equity sales roles for Barclays de Zoete Wedd Ltd.
Yasuaki Hayashi
Hayashi joined Liquidnet in May 2006 to take responsibilities for operations and compliance of the company's Japanese business. Before joining Liquidnet, he worked at KBC Securities Japan (ex DE Shaw Securities Japan) as Executive Director of Operations from 1997 to 2006 where he managed a wide area of domestic operations, international operations, compliance, and market control. Prior to joining KBC, he was a manager of Daiwa Securities' international operations from 1990 to 1997.