Liquidnet, Europe's number one block trading venue, has today announced that John Barker, Managing Director of Liquidnet Europe, has officially been appointed to the new position of Head of International.
As Head of International, John will be in charge of all regions outside of the United States. The heads of Liquidnet's regional operations in Asia Pacific and Canada will report to John, who will in turn report to Liquidnet founder and CEO Seth Merrin. John also remains as Managing Director of Liquidnet in Europe.
Commenting on the appointment, Liquidnet CEO Seth Merrin said, "Our international growth this year has been very impressive, and I remain confident in John's ability to continue to build on our success in these markets. We are fortunate to have John at the helm of our international business at this time of unprecedented opportunity in our European and Asia-Pacific markets."
John takes up the post during a period of strong growth for Liquidnet's international operations. Liquidnet recently announced a quarterly record in EMEA for Q3 this year, with nearly £14.4 billion in total principal traded, an increase of 54% (44% in US$ terms) when compared with the same quarter last year. Liquidnet Asia Pacific saw principal traded jump 52% compared to the previous quarter, to approximately US$ 3.0 billion for the quarter. This marked an increase of 81% compared to Q3 2008.
Liquidnet's success has been mirrored in industry awards in the latter half of this year - Liquidnet Europe won Best Dark Pool at the Financial News Awards for Excellence in IT Trading and Technology, and Best Buy-Side Execution Venue at the Buy-Side Technology Awards. In both cases, this is the second consecutive year Liquidnet has won the award. Liquidnet was also voted Best Venue in Asia-Pacific for Block Trading by AsianInvestor magazine.
The announcement of John's appointment follows the European launch last month of Supernatural, an additional offering for the buy-side, which provides access to actionable liquidity from Liquidnet's 12 European Streaming Liquidity Participants (SLPs). Supernatural gives the buy-side the ability to achieve best execution on more of their orders, without comprising anonymity, information protection or market impact.
Prior to joining Liquidnet in June 2001, John was Head of Equity Operations at Tokyo-Mitsubishi International, based in London, and Head of Trade Support for Deutsche Bank, also based in London. From 1988 to 1998, John was Director of Operations at Instinet.