Morstatt, who most recently held the position of principal at Thomas Weisel Partners, was the co-author of the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol that has grown to become the global standard for inter-firm electronic communications related to pricing, order routing, execution and settlement.

"Joining TABB Group at this point in time in my career is an exceptional opportunity to help shape the vision of an industry that is redefining its financial technology, market structure and investment techniques," said Morstatt.

Morstatt spent the past five years as a principal at Thomas Weisel Partners where he concentrated on the management of trading technology and banking and private investment assignments. Prior to joining Thomas Weisel, he held the title of senior vice president at Commerzbank Capital Markets Corporation, a wholly owned registered broker-dealer of Commerzbank AG, from 1997 to 2000 in a dual role as head of electronic brokerage and head of trading technology.

While working at Salomon Brothers from 1990 to 1997, he managed the development and initial deployment of the industry's first fully paperless institutional order-management system. This suite of applications enabled the automation of the order entry, execution and settlement processes, which eliminated many of the bottlenecks, errors and costs that existed in the mainframe-keypunch world of paper tickets. The system was composed of linked applications that were deployed to sales-traders, listed traders, program traders, the NYSE floor and sales support. Within five years of Salomon's initial deployment of this system, all large broker-dealers either developed or purchased similar technologies realizing that without it they could not remain competitive.

Following on this success, Morstatt worked with counterparts at Fidelity Management and Research Company to author and promote the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol, now the global standard for inter-firm electronic communications related to pricing, order routing, execution and settlement. The FIX effort provided him with the opportunity to work closely with the industry's largest institutions and vendors. Recognizing that these efforts had moved him from a technology role into production, Salomon Brothers created a new position for him on the trading floor as a sales-trader responsible for electronic trading, a function now standard at most broker-dealers worldwide.

Morstatt holds NASD Series 7, 24, 55 and 63 licenses and earned a BE in mechanical engineering and an MS in computer science and management from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.

"We're thrilled to add Chris to our team of partners. He has an incredible depth of financial services technology expertise and experience with the perspective to serve our expanding client base and help take our brand to the next level," said Larry Tabb, CEO and founder at TABB Group.