GreySpark Partners, a London-based business, management and technology consultancy specialising in capital markets, has officially launched.
The launch comes in response to increased demand from financial institutions for expert and pragmatic consultancy that covers the whole project lifecycle, from strategy and management to implementation and operations.
GreySpark officially launches with a 20 person strong team, including its four founding partners, who between them bring over 35 years’ industry experience to the market.
Frederic Ponzo, managing partner, will focus on providing leadership, direction and vision to the company. Prior to founding GreySpark, Ponzo joined the international consultancy Net2S in 1998 as a consultant in the firm’s Paris office. He moved to London in early 2000 to open the firm’s UK office and took on a wide range of consulting and operational roles. Ponzo became managing director of the firm in 2004 and assumed overall responsibility of UK business.
George Kao, partner, will lead business development and manage growth of the company franchise. Kao was most recently a sales executive for the e-commerce business (Barx) at Barclays Capital, where he focussed on developing new trading relationships in FX, fixed income, and commodities in emerging markets such as Turkey and South Africa. Before that he was business development manager at Net2S, where he developed and maintained new client relationships with tier-one banks, exchanges and technology providers.
Andrew McLauchlan, partner, will define and be responsible for sales strategy as well as overseeing marketing and business development. He will be focusing on several key sell-side institutions as well as GreySpark’s buy-side business. Prior to this role, McLauchlan was business development director for Net2S where he managed a team of sales executives, as well as being directly responsible for the firm’s major accounts.
Bradley Wood, partner, will run the firm’s consulting organisation and specialise in delivering project and interim management services. Wood has over 15 years’ experience in IT where he has fulfilled technology, delivery and operations roles. Previously, Wood worked at Net2S UK as a principal consultant, where he ran the business and management consulting practice.
GreySpark Partners currently caters for the European market: for the buy-side, including investment managers, asset managers, hedge funds; the sell-side, including investment banking, corporate banking, brokers and dealers; as well as solution providers, including exchanges, multilateral trading facilities, electronic communication networks, market data providers and independent software vendors. The senior team aims to expand its operations into the US and Asia within the next couple of years.
Ponzo says: “The industry is saturated with generalist management consultants on the one hand, and single-product specialists on the other. GreySpark Partners’ consultants are adept at coming up with solutions and seeing them through to operation. Our collective experience, creative spark, management approach and tenacity all combine to deliver results for our clients. Ultimately, our people make the difference. They are recruited out of the top one per cent of IT and management professionals across the City. The team is already helping many clients to address their challenges, and is extremely excited by the interest shown from new business enquiries.”
