The Innovators’ Exchange by Oliver Wyman

In this episode, Hiten Patel and his co-host Cosimo Schiavone are joined by Silvio Tavares, the CEO of VantageScore, a national credit scoring company. Silvio shares his personal journey and the challenges his family faced as immigrants in the United States. He also discusses the role of VantageScore in the credit scoring industry and the importance of financial inclusion. Silvio highlights the need for innovation and the incorporation of alternative data in credit decisions. He also shares his insights on the future of data usage and the importance of creating value for multiple stakeholders.

In this special episode of the Innovators' Exchange podcast, recorded during the Futures Industry Association Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, Hiten interviews three guests: Lee Hodgkinson, Chief Strategy Officer at Tadawul Saudi; Isabelle Girolami, CEO of LCH Limited; and Mark Beeston, Managing Partner of Illuminate Financial Management. The guests discuss various topics related to innovation in the financial industry.Lee Hodgkinson shares insights on innovation in capital markets, highlighting key innovations such as electronic trading platforms, derivatives, and blockchain. Isabelle emphasizes the importance of innovation for resilience, efficiency, and delivering value to members and the financial community. Mark discusses the need for applied innovation and mentions digital assets, ESG, and private markets as exciting macro themes.In a Q&A with questions from Innovators’ Exchange guest and CEO of Symphony Brad Levy, as well as Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL, the panel discuss the challenges and opportunities of innovation in the financial industry, including competition from mega tech companies and the need for agility and adaptability. They conclude by sharing their personal learnings and advice, including the importance of embracing failure and focusing on outcomes rather than just technology for technology's sake. Key talking points include innovations in capital markets, challenges and opportunities in different regions, applied innovation, competition from mega tech companies, agility and adaptability, and personal learnings and advice.

In this episode of the Innovators’ Exchange podcast, Hiten and Lance Uggla discuss Lance's journey as an entrepreneur and his current role as General Atlantic Vice Chair and co-founder of Beyond Net Zero, the firm’s growth climate fund. Lance is also the founder and CEO of IHS Markit, that was then sold to S&P for $44bn, becoming one of the largest deals to have ever taken place in the industry. He also outlines his work with the team at General Atlantic and his role as an entrepreneur in residence.

In this episode, Hiten interviews Rana Yared, a general partner at leading venture capital firm Balderton Capital. Rana shares her career journey, detailing her move from Goldman Sachs to Balderton Capital where she launched their growth fund. She discusses the role of venture capitalists, addressing common misconceptions about their work, in addition to exploring the European innovation landscape and the opportunities it presents.

In this episode, Hiten Patel dives into the world of Fastmarkets, a commodity information service that provides price data for commodities used in various industries and markets. In this conversation with CEO Raju Daswani, we learn about the company's evolution from a print publication to a digital business, driven by the transformative forces of the internet and the growth of the Chinese economy. Fastmarkets plays a crucial role in enhancing transparency in commodity markets, particularly in the context of the energy transition and the demand for critical materials.

In this episode of the Innovators’ Exchange, Hiten Patel, global head of Financial Infrastructure, Technology, and Services at Oliver Wyman interviews Anand Sambasivan, CEO and co-founder of PrimaryBid. They discuss PrimaryBid’s mission to deliver fairness and inclusion to capital markets, particularly public markets. Anand uses an analogy of a grocery store to explain how the public markets are not fully democratized, with certain opportunities only available to institutional investors and the ultra-wealthy. PrimaryBid aims to change this by providing access to retail investors and individuals. Anand also talks about the importance of authenticity and perseverance in delivering change and making an impact, and underscores the importance of never giving up when pursuing an idea.

Symphony CEO, Brad Levy, joins our host, Hiten Patel, to discuss the impact of technology on the financial industry, with a focus on data and artificial intelligence (AI). Brad shares his view that data is the new front office and that the industry is only starting to leverage its power. He discusses the potential of AI and its transformative effect on people's capacity to process and generate information, as well as the advantages of in-person work over remote work.

In this interview with Hiten Patel, David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Group, discusses the journey of the company, its differentiated offering and determination to shake-up the foreign exchange market. David shares how LMAX Group adapted and pivoted to meet the changing demands of the market and expanded into the digital assets space, as well as giving some insights into his leadership philosophy.

Hiten Patel and Catherine Long, co-founder of Trace, explore measuring carbon emissions and the need for transparency and data standardization in the climate tech industry.

In the latest episode of Innovators' Exchange, Hiten Patel speaks with Bin Ren, the CEO and co-founder of SigTech, a leading provider of quant technologies. The discussion centers around democratizing access to quant trading strategies, the surge of retail investing, and the profound implications of generative AI (Gen AI) in the financial markets. Bin unveils the story behind SigTech's mission to accelerate the idea-to-market process in capital markets. Their focus on reducing the lifecycle of ideas from months to seconds empowers traders and portfolio managers, democratizing the landscape for both professionals and retail traders. The company's cutting-edge technology, featuring Gen AI, enables quick generation, testing, and deployment of trading ideas, contributing to a more efficient and accessible market. Key themes explored in this episode include: Democratizing access to quant trading, enhancing market efficiency, and the strategic infrastructure and technology rebuild undertaken by SigTech. The narrative unfolds further, touching on the challenges faced in serving diverse clients, the implications of democratized access, and the evolution of humans augmenting AI capabilities. The episode also delves into SigTech's voice-based applications, shaping the future of market discussions. Bin shares insights into the changing nature of work with the rise of large language models and envisions a future where humans augment AI capabilities. The conversation explores challenges faced by SigTech in offering technology to various clients and how they strategically provide API services, allowing clients to tailor features to their needs. Bin extends a shout-out to Kiet Tran’s stealth-startup, focused on data licensing models for AI. The startup aims to revolutionize data accessibility in a world where AI models are the licensee. This episode is part of our Innovators' Exchange series. Tune in to for a captivating exploration of AI's transformative potential in financial markets, touching on key themes and opportunities for both professionals and retail investors.   This episode was recorded in may 2023