Mr. Alvarez will provide leadership and strategic direction as the group examines the pertinent administrative, technological, and taxonomy related issues that hamper the management and deployment of market and reference data in the financial services industry.

"I'm delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to something as important MDDL," says Mr. Alvarez. "FISD is a real leader in tackling critical industry issues, and hopefully the direct data modeling experience TAP brings to the table helps to round out the initiative." Mr. Alvarez adds that FISD is the leading forum for data experts to debate, propose, and solve the problems associated with market and reference data that costs the financial services industry hundreds of millions of dollars each year. "It's a terrific group to work with."

Mr. Alvarez's long career in both the market and reference data arenas make him a solid choice to chair the working group. FISD's membership consists of executives from exchanges, market data vendors, specialist data providers, brokerage firms, and banks. Mr. Alvarez spent the last 20 years working for financial services firms, data vendors, and now with TAP, providing software solutions for market data management.

"Marc brings a specialist's perspective to FISD because he recognizes the frustrations felt by all the individual members and the industries they represent," says Tom Davin, Vice President of FISD and former Senior Vice President for Market Data Distribution at NASDAQ. "I am confident Marc's passion for market data will be well received by our members and that together the Group will bring forth some excellent recommendations pertaining to MDDL and reference data standardization."

The Group meets weekly via conference call and presents its findings to the FISD Executive Committee. The entire membership will gather this month for their General Meeting that coincides with the Securities Industry Association's Technology Management Conference & Exhibit June 21-23 in New York City.