Firm58, a leading financial management software company, announced today that Mike Plunkett, former president of Instinet North America, was appointed to Firm58's Board of Directors, effective December 16, 2010. Plunkett becomes the fifth member of the company's board.
Plunkett brings more than 25 years of securities industry experience to the executive board of Chicago-based Firm58. Under his tenure as the president of Instinet from 2002 to 2008, the company experienced significant growth and expansion, increasing trade volume to 80 billion from 16 billion. Earlier, Plunkett managed Instinet's institutional equities division followed by a role as co-head of the trading desk at Lynch, Jones & Ryan, an Instinet subsidiary. Plunkett began his career as a sales trader at Boston Securities and also worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
"Mike brings an invaluable depth of financial services knowledge to our board," said Nick Fera, chief executive officer of Firm58. "Firm58 helps firms recognize the revenue opportunities and cost savings in managing middle- and back-office processing of fees, commissions, and payouts. Mike's client commission agreement (CCA) expertise, sell-side insights, and industry contacts will help us expand our unique offerings to clients."
Firm58's web-based solutions have been adopted by large financial institutions to manage fees, commissions and payouts, including billing and soft dollar program management. The company manages the billing function for many of the top global exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, CBOE Stock Exchange (CBSX), and the Boston Options Exchange (BOX). Prominent institutional brokerages, broker-dealers, and proprietary trading firms including Lightspeed Financial, Cheevers & Company, and Hamilton Executions employ Firm58's solutions.
"I am thrilled to have this opportunity to apply my securities industry experience to such a promising company," said Plunkett. "Firm58 has proven the value to clients of elevating post-trade processing out of legacy systems and business unit silos into a more strategic part of daily business. Brokers, execution venues and trading firms that push this project down the priority list run the risk oof being left behind in today's increasingly competitive markets."
Firm58's Board of Directors now consists of five members: Jim Moran, partner at North Bridge Venture Partners; Adam Koopersmith, partner at New World Ventures; Mike Plunkett; Nick Fera; and Sam Mele, Firm58's co-founder and managing director.