People in the News

Derivatives data and valuation specialist Markit Group of London has hired Jeff Gooch from Morgan Stanley as EVP and head of its portfolio valuations and trade processing businesses. Gooch, who has a strong operational background and is former European co-chair of the International Swaps & Derivatives Association's operations committee, was most recently Morgan Stanley's managing director and global co-head of fixed-income operations and global head of over-the-counter derivative operations. He spent 11 years with Morgan Stanley, serving as the firm's representative on the Markit board and as a member of the advisory board for the Reference Entity Database that Market owns. He also worked for eight years in Ernst & Young's financial services practice.

Markit CEO Lance Uggla said that Gooch's "background will complement the existing Markit leadership group and will accelerate our drive to be the leading financial services firm for the processing and valuation of OTC derivatives." Gooch said he has "watched the company go from strength to strength and [is] very much looking forward to playing my part in the next chapter of Markit's development."

Furqan Nazeeri, the founding CEO of Pivot Solutions who was recently replaced at that Eze Castle Integration spin-off by former Bloomberg and Thomson Financial executive Louis Eccleston (Securities Industry News, April 23), has joined Softbank Capital as an entrepreneur in residence. Softbank is one of the venture capital investors in Pivot, developer of the IMTrader system that integrates instant messaging with institutional trade order management and workflow. Nazeeri, who will be evaluating investment opportunities and assisting portfolio companies, called Softbank, which has offices in New York and Massachusetts and a relationship with Softbank Corp. of Japan, "a clear leader" among venture firms and praised its "focus on the entrepreneur."