Activ, a global provider of real-time, multi-asset financial market data and solutions, today announced that Will Kennedy has been appointed executive vice president, global strategy and business development.
Kennedy will join Activ's senior management team to oversee corporate strategy, business development, strategic alliances, key global account initiatives, and sales and marketing for the Americas. He brings over 20 years of experience working with major enterprises supporting their market data, analytics and execution needs.
Prior to joining Activ, Kennedy was head of business development at Exegy, Inc. where he was responsible for their enterprise commercial strategy and alliances. Before Exegy, Kennedy served as head of data products with S&P Indices. Previously, he was head of research sales and business development for ITG, Inc., where he directed the commercial strategy, alliance program, and management of the institutional research sales function. He has also worked at Reuters where he held a series of senior management roles both in the US and abroad.
"Over the past ten years, Activ has expanded from a US regional aggregator to a global, multi-asset data provider. We recognized the need to appoint fresh, strong senior management to help support us through this next phase of growth. Through his experience operating at a senior level across a wide range of services in the industry, Will is clearly the man for the job," said Frank Piasecki, President and Co-Founder, Activ. "As the concept of market data as a service continues to permeate the market, Will's experience will underpin our unique capability to address the challenges enterprises face when taking control of existing market data infrastructures."
"Activ is at a pivotal moment in its history. Enterprises are looking not just for a market data partner, but the right market data partner. Activ is the only truly independent end-to-end market data provider offering a suite of data, infrastructure and connectivity products that can reduce total cost of ownership. With budgets tight and existing infrastructures out of date, I see a great opportunity for Activ to penetrate the commplex and underserved enterprise space. I am looking forward to leading that effort," said Kennedy.
Activ covers global equities, options, futures and FX market data through content from a growing list of over 150 global exchanges and other venues and offers collocation services in 20 sites globally. The company provides a suite of market data content, distribution, hosting and connectivity services that enable clients to manage their market data infrastructure in a way that is tailored to their unique requirements while reducing total cost of ownership. The systems were built with forward-looking capacity, so even as message rates continue to grow, costs do not increase. Activ's light footprint requires a minimal investment, resulting in significantly less data center and power expenses.