Investment research marketplace ERIC has appointed Daren Riley as Chief Executive, with responsibility for driving the company’s strategy to strengthen lasting investment research relationships in the MiFID II world.
Riley started providing consultancy services to ERIC in 2017 with a focus on business and product development. His appointment as Chief Executive reflects an evolution of ERIC’s strategy to address the realities of the investment research market under MiFID II.
Riley will use his wealth of institutional asset management experience to focus the ERIC offering on generating longer-term subscription-based research relationships between investment managers and research providers, while also growing access to individually priced research reports and analysts’ time. He has more than 30 years’ experience in the sector and has held senior equity investing and sales management roles at institutions including Nomura, CLSA and Macquarie Group. Riley also founded and managed an investment management business with portfolio management responsibilities for Asian Equity and Global Macro strategies.
ERIC has traditionally positioned itself as a marketplace for investment research where the buyers and sellers of substantive content meet. Facilitating the exchange of high quality research will remain core to its purpose but, with the industry struggling to achieve a fair price for standalone research, ERIC will channel more resource into creating an on and off-line user experience which supports profitable, long-term partnerships between providers and managers.
Russell Napier, co-founder and chairman, ERIC, says: “Daren’s appointment is an important strategic development for ERIC, strengthening the business’s focus on solving the challenges still plaguing the investment research industry. His expertise will be vital to ERIC reversing the trend of managers narrowing the scope of research, and valuable insights, they are exposed to. Daren’s experience will be vital to building the partnerships that ultimately improve both the quality of research and the value managers derive.”
Riley says: “ERIC was established in 2014 to cater for an efficient research market where the value of research was clear. The MiFID II reality is more fragmented and nuanced, with some providers offering lower prices in order to maintain relationships, while the institutional research vending and procurement process is dominated by subscription agreements. In this environment we can deliver the most value by enabling providers of all sizes to present their offerings to a substantial institutional network on a level playing field, where investment managers can access enriched information to discover, explore and evaluate the suitability of research they don’t currently use in a quick, easy and compliant manner.”
