Company

Nigel Kneafsey

Chief Executive Officer & Founder

Nigel Kneafsey is founder and CEO of Options, a provider of private financial cloud services to the global financial community. Mr Kneafsey launched Options in 1993 in Europe to provide outsourced IT services to the investment banking industry.

Options quickly expanded its client base to traditional and alternative asset management firms, and brokerages. In 2000, Mr Kneafsey oversaw the development and launch of the Options PIPE platform, Options’ global private cloud services platform. Designed to minimise what Mr Kneafsey viewed as systemic inefficiencies in the financial sector’s IT implementation practices, the Options PIPE platform was the first, comprehensive Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform for financial services firms. Since 2000, Options IT has expanded into North America and Asia and now provides private cloud services to to over 130 firms globally.

Danny Moore

Chief Operating Officer

Danny Moore is a former Chief Operating Officer of the NYSE Euronext trading technology segment, NYSE Technologies. Prior to joining NYSE in 2008, Mr Moore served both as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer of trading technology firm Wombat Financial Software. Wombat, under Mr Moore’s stewardship, was acquired by NYSE Euronext in March 2008. Before joining Wombat, Mr Moore worked with Newry-based First Derivatives Plc. In 2010, Mr Moore established Belfast-based investment firm Lough Shore Investments. In late 2012, Mr Moore joined Options as Chief Operating Officer responsible for leading the firm’s day-to-day global operations, in addition to overseeing the continued market expansion of the Options PIPE® Private Financial Cloud within both established and emerging financial markets.

John Bryant

Chief Technology Officer

John Bryant was named Head of Technology for Options in November 2012 after joining the company in mid-2008 as Head of Technology for Europe, where he oversaw the development of the European Momentum and Velocity low-latency market data product portfolios and managed the company’s European data centre expansion program. He was also responsible for developing a coordinated response to market developments including exchange/MTF platform migrations to multicast-oriented delivery, specifically for LSE Millennium and NYSE Euronext UTP. Mr. Bryant has a wealth of experience in capital markets technologies including trading, market data, data applications and straight-through processing. He holds a joint bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish from Liverpool University, holds a certification from the ITIL Foundation, and is a Prince II Practitioner.

Tim Yockel

SVP Global Sales

Tim Yockel is the former Global Head of Sales for NYSE Technologies, a position he held from March 2008 until joining Options as SVP for Global Sales in March 2013. In his role with Options, Mr Yockel brings 20 years’ experience in managing international sales organisations and selling complex technology solutions. Previously, Mr Yockel was Head of Sales for the trading technology firm Wombat Financial Software, which was acquired by NYSE Euronext in 2008. While at Wombat, he was instrumental in establishing sales offices in New York, London, Chicago and Tokyo. Prior to joining Wombat, Mr Yockel spent six years with Reuters America, selling solutions to the firm’s top 40 focus group accounts. Tim is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned Bachelor’s degrees in both mathematics and economics.

Richard Kingsley-Smith

Director of Sales - Europe

Richard Kingsley-Smith’s roles include managing the UK sales team on a day-to-day basis, assisting team members in more complex meetings, and personally managing the sales process of the largest business opportunities Options comes across. Mr. Kingsley-Smith also plays a key part in supplier negotiations. Since joining Options as Head of European Sales, he has been instrumental in taking sales to a new level for Options, increasing turnover from £2m in 2002 to current levels.

Ken Barnes

SVP Corporate Development

Ken Barnes joined Options in October 2012, and his responsibilities include leading corporate and product strategy. Prior to joining Options, Mr. Barnes was a Senior Vice President in the Global Platform Services Division of NYSE Euronext where he oversaw the launch of the Mahwah colocation facility and managed the SFTI and Platform Services business units. Mr. Barnes was a member of the management team behind Wombat Financial software’s meteoric rise in the industry, and has also held positions in business development, product marketing and trading operations at firms including NextSet Software, Reuters and Salomon Brothers. He holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and an undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont.

Click here to follow Ken on the Options blog

Callum Runcie

Director of Buy-Side Sales - Americas

Mr. Runcie joined Options in March 2012, and he oversees all North American sales of the Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud services to buy-side clients. Prior to joining Options, Mr. Runcie was Sales Director for the Alternatives Business at HSBC Securities Services, where he was responsible for sales and client relationships with the firm’s hedge fund clients. Before joining HSBC, he held senior-level sales roles at both Sophis and Sungard. Prior to joining Sungard in 2005, Mr. Runcie spent more than four years as a trader at Starmark Trading Ltd. He received a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Queens University and a master’s degree in International Securities Investments and Banking from the ICMA Centre Reading University.

Simon Chivers

Director of Asia Pacific

Simon Chivers joined Options in July 2006 to start the Asia business in Hong Kong. He is primarily responsible for sales, account management and client implementations in the region and also provides business management oversight. Since 2006 he has grown Options regional client base and expanded the operations to Japan and Singapore. Prior to joining Options, Mr Chivers moved to Hong Kong in early 2004 with Credit Suisse where he led a number of front office application development streams.

Prior to moving to Hong Kong Mr Chivers held several consultancy roles and implemented front office application development projects for several leading investment banks in the UK. Mr Chivers holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Business Economics from the London School of Economics.

Nick Bryant

Chief Administrative Officer - Americas

Nick Bryant joined Options in August 2005, and is responsible for the profit and loss of the US regional office. In his current role he oversees new sales, strategic partnerships, marketing and account management as well as signing off on regional infrastructure spending and hiring.

Mr. Bryant was the first Options employee to work out of the US, beginning as a support engineer before later moving to sales and account management. During his time in these initial roles he was able to develop a wide range of skills and techniques in both the technical and client-facing aspects of the business, and quickly became an integral part of the company’s strategic decisions that balanced market demand with technical feasibility.

Mr. Bryant holds a Bachelor of Science degree (Hons) in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

Max Brown

Chief Information Officer

As well as working with senior management on the strategic technical development of Options PIPE®, Max Brown’s key role at Options has been leading the design, build, and management of a 20,000 ft2 purpose built, high power data centre facility at Park Royal in the UK. Through this role, Mr. Brown has fully utilised his experiences in electronic engineering and large scale IT project management skills. In addition, Mr. Brown manages the relocation of Options’ equipment between locations and designs and implements projects for new data centre co-location clients.