As data scientists displace rainmakers and traders as the most sought after people in finance, a new group of people hold the keys to the industry’s future.
As data scientists displace rainmakers and traders as the most sought after people in finance, a new group of people hold the keys to the industry’s future. The promotion of Marty Chavez, a technologist, as CFO of Goldman Sachs, and Eli Wiesel, a quant, as Goldman’s chief information officer, is prophetic. Whether in sales or trading, the future will increasingly be about using computational power to analyze data.
We’ve assembled a list of some of the current top data people working in banking and finance. By focusing on data scientists rather than ‘data officers’ we’ve tried to capture the people who actually manipulate the data rather than the people who manage the people who manipulate the data (although there might be some of the latter on here if they do both.) Let us know if you think we’ve left anyone out via the comments box at the bottom of the page.
Koh is a director in data science atBlackrock. The investment manager has a well established data science and Machine Learning team, which was strengthened in 2015 by the arrival of Bill MacCartney, a senior research scientist from Google. MacCartney left in April 2016 and is now working on Siri’s “proactive intelligence” platform at Apple.
Koh has a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University and joined Blackrock as an associate in 2009.
Also a director in Blackrock’s data science team, Demartines works with Koh. He has a PhD in computer science from the Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble and joined Blackrock in 2010.
Angus Lund is the global head of AlphaWise, a data analytics unit within Morgan Stanley’s research division. An Oxford University graduate with a degree in mathematics, he joined Morgan Stanley as a research analyst in 1998 after starting out as an accountant. Unusually among this group, he doesn’t have a PhD.
Madhavan is the chief data scientist at UBS. A PhD in information technology from the Leonard Stern School of Business, he joined in 2015 from J.P. Morgan where he held a similar role.
Afshar is the chief data scientist at J.P. Morgan’s corporate and investment bank. A PhD from Stanford University, he joined J.P. Morgan in January 2016 after spending five and a half years at Goldman Sachs.
Giller works with Afshar at J.P. Morgan, where he’s head of data science research for the corporate and investment bank. He has a PhD in experimental elementary particle physics from the University of Oxford and was previously chief data scientist at Bloomberg.
Recce is the chief data scientist at GIC in Singapore. A PhD in neuroscience from UCL, he joined in 2016 after 15 months at Point72 Asset Management (where he reportedly suffered in a culture clash with the fund’s traders).
Loaiza is the new chief data scientist at Poiint72 Asset Management. He has a PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Mexico and joined from J.P. Morgan in 2015.
