OpenDoor Securities LLC (“OpenDoor”), the first all-to-all marketplace for illiquid US Treasuries, has named Michael Cashel its new Chief Operating Officer. Cashel will lead efforts to scale OpenDoor’s platform across the $16.2 trillion US Treasury market and expand the Company’s client base globally.
He will report directly to OpenDoor’s CEO, President and co-founder, Susan Estes.
The appointment comes at a time of rapid growth of the platform. In the past 12 months, the platform has seen a 436% increase in average daily order volume, with matched volumes rising 403% over the same period. In less than two years, OpenDoor has facilitated over $1.4 trillion in order volume.
Cashel brings more than 27 years of capital markets expertise to OpenDoor. He was most recently a senior consultant at State Street Global Markets where he helped the firm identify strategic partnerships that would help clients better leverage the combination of State Street and other partners. Prior to that, Mike spent nine years at Fidelity Investments, where he initially ran the equity division of the broker-dealer, and later started an innovation team called Fidelity Trading Ventures that was responsible for establishing Luminex Trading & Analytics, an ATS designed to minimize information leakage and market impact when trading large blocks of stock. Luminex is a consortium of nine of the country's largest asset managers. Cashel was the first CEO of Luminex, ultimately spinning the Company off as an independent entity.
He previously spent two years as Senior Managing Director of Electronic Trading at Bear Stearns and nine years as a Principal at Morgan Stanley in both the US and UK.
“Michael has experienced first-hand how certain asset classes have evolved from high-touch trading to low-touch, electronic models; trends that have become more pronounced in the fixed income markets over the last several years,” said Estes. “Michael is a fantastic addition to the OpenDoor team and his knowledge of market structure and technology will be pivotal in our path forward.”
“The Fixed income markets have made meaningful strides toward electronic trading and OpenDoor has already begun to play a key role in the changes we’re seeing in US Treasuries,” said Cashel. “I’m very excited to be joining the OpenDoor team and I look forward to helping the firm articulate solutions to the liquidity issues clients face in OFTR Treasuries and TIPS.”
OpenDoor is the first women-owned and operated bond trading platform in the world and remains the only platform that is a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE).