Garry, who initially joined as a Director in September, will now work with the Perfect Channel Board to deliver an expansionary high-level strategic business plan to work with a variety of partners across multiple asset classes, focussing on financial institutions, commodities and logistics. Phil Bird, the creator of Perfect Channel will remain officially as Founder and Executive Director.

The company builds digital marketplaces, for B2B and B2B2C processes along the value chain, improving the efficiency and transparency of markets, as well as being experts in auction technology, and overlaying solutions with data science in the form of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

Perfect Channel is a multi-asset class trading partner and provider, with new and ongoing projects including a B2B automotive remarketing platform for one of Europe’s leading car leasing companies, agriculture distribution for Global Dairy Trade, a risk balancing platform for the world’s largest reinsurance market, online auctions for Christie’s - the international auction house, a bulk-shipping platform, an electronic solution for Aegis - the international energy derivatives broker, and an active pipeline of new ventures to come to market soon. The company is also focussed on creating and owning new marketplaces, alone and with partners, and the company’s future plans will pivot on a broader marketplace involvement.

A new round of funding to accelerate expansion into new marketplaces will also be initiated in Q1 2020.

Garry Jones was most recently CEO of the London Metal Exchange and Co-Head of markets for HKEX, having previously served as CEO of The London Financial Futures Exchange (Liffe) and Global Head of Derivatives for NYSE Euronext . He was the CEO of BrokerTec Europe and CEO of ICAP Electronic Broking (Europe) and was part of the initial launch team for BrokerTec, the world’s largest OTC electronic trading platform, now part of the CME. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of ICBCS (a London based emerging markets investment bank) and KRM22 (a leading technology provider of risk management solutions).

Martin Botha, Chairman of Perfect Channel comments: “I’m very pleased to announce Garry’s appointment, as a pioneer in digital marketplace transformation, his knowledge and experience is immensely valuable to Perfect Channel and its customer base, and the timing is excellent as the pace of market opportunities continues to accelerate.”

“Phil Bird, the company’s founder and former CEO retains a key leadership and board role in the business as Executive Director and will continue to focus on those areas in which his expertise and knowledge are critical to Perfect Channel’s future - the Board recognises his key role in the company to date. I would also personally wish to note my appreciation at the manner in which Phil has demonstrated his commitment to the company in supporting and enabling these changes.”

Garry Jones adds: “I am delighted to be joining such innovative and progressive company such as Perfect Channel and look forward to working with our current and new clients to create more efficient marketplaces. In many ways, the current opportunities in the broader real economy business reminds me of the early days of financial markets, when the inflexion point from relationship-based trading to digital platforms transformed the paradigms of trading. The real economy is catching up: never has efficiency and pro-active responsiveness to trends been more relevant across the entire value chain. Expanded B2B marketplaces and digital sales channels, coupled with data science are inevitable.”