Cowen Inc has announced several key hires and a significant product enhancement in response to strong growth at UK-headquartered trading platform Cowen Execution Services Limited (CESL). Since launching with an experienced team of trading professionals in October 2019, CESL has seen impressive growth in the depth and breadth of trading on its platform, already executing USD75 billion in non-dollar trades.
Matt Cyzer, CEO of CESL, says: “Over the past four months, as the pandemic has caused such volatility in global markets, institutional clients have consistently turned to Cowen, resoundingly validating our core, collaborative culture and value proposition. Today, more than ever, trust and execution quality matter most in any trading platform and Cowen’s growth at this time is testimony to both aspects being at the heart of our franchise. We are completely committed to unconflicted execution, unique electronic trading products and a team of professionals utterly dedicated to serving our clients’ best interests. We are excited by this momentum and the opportunity to add significant new talent to our platform, across both our electronic and high touch trading businesses, and to integrating new sources of liquidity.”
Further strengthening Cowen’s portfolio trading capabilities, Kenneth Kane and Colleen Schlachter have joined the firm as Managing Director and Director, respectively, both reporting to Jason Oien, Head of Global Electronic Trading and Portfolio Trading. Critesh Patel has also joined the firm as Director, Head of Execution Consultancy, Europe, reporting to Tom Campbell, Head of European Electronic Trading, and Jack Gold, Head of Research and Development, Electronic Trading, to further deepen Cowen’s electronic trading capabilities and platform. Messrs. Kane and Patel are based in London, Ms. Schlachter in New York. Additionally, Ross Duncan will be joining the firm as Director, further strengthening Cowen’s client coverage capabilities. He will report to Carl Hayes, Head of EMEA Sales Trading, and be based in London.
Cowen continues to invest in its market-leading global electronic platform, also announcing the addition of comprehensive relative limit functionality and additional liquidity sources, including access to Liquidnet’s resting pool of buy-side liquidity. This new product enhancement goes beyond the market-standard conditional order-type interaction with Liquidnet’s trading venues. The comprehensive liquidity reach of Cowen’s platform continues to be maximised by its non-conflicted routing logic – as neither a systematic internaliser (SI) nor multilateral trading facility (MTF) – and its innovative “dark heatmap.”
Cyzer says: “As our business continues to grow at pace, Cowen is making the critical strategic investments required expand our platform and execution service offering. We retain constant focus on maintaining the high level of trust and confidence our clients have placed in us reflecting our core principles. The addition of Colleen, Ken, Ross and Critesh to our team together with the aforementioned advances in greater liquidity reach and overall product enhancements reflect our continued commitment to offer a best in class global trading platform to our clients.”
Kenneth Kane joins Cowen as Managing Director on Cowen’s Global Portfolio Trading team. Most recently, Kane was European Head of Portfolio Trading at Macquarie, where he overhauled their platform in EMEA, overseeing Algo, PT and Transition Management. Prior to that, he was European Head of Portfolio Trading at Credit Suisse, where he spent over 15 years building out and managing a consistently ranked Top Three business in Europe focusing on Global Execution. Mr. Kane started his career at Bear Stearns building trading platforms before joining the Portfolio Trading desk as a Sales Trader and Index Analyst.
Critesh Patel joins Cowen as Director, Head of Execution Consultancy, Europe. Prior to this, Patel served as Vice President of Quant Strategy at Macquarie Group for two and a half years. Before that he spent two years at Credit Suisse’s Advanced Execution Services trading desk. Prior to that, he was a Fixed Income ETF Trader at Goldenberg Hehmeyer Trading Co Ltd. Patel received his PhD and MEng in Mechanical Engineering from University of Nottingham.
Colleen Schlachter joins Cowen as a Director on Cowen’s Global Portfolio Trading team. Most recently Schlachter was a Senior Sales Trader on the Global Execution Services team at Societe Generale. Prior to that she worked on the Global Program Trading desk at JP Morgan where she provided dedicated sales trading coverage to US asset managers trading global equities. Schlachter brings with her extensive experience with executing complex agency and risk portfolio and electronic trades. She began her career at Bear Stearns within the management training program after graduating from the University of Scranton.
Ross Duncan joins Cowen as Director on Cowen’s high-touch sales trading desk. Most recently, Duncan was at Citigroup, where he spent seven years as an equity sales trader, leading coverage on a wide range of investment managers out of London. Previously he served six years at Merrill Lynch covering hedge funds from the bank’s London office. Duncan holds a degree in Software Engineering, with first class honours, from the University of Glasgow, and has completed postgraduate study at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Stanford University. He is also a CFA Charterholder.
