Michael Baker Joins MarketAxess as Chief Technology Officer

Extensive investor and market making IT background to support global technology development


NEW YORK, April 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, and the provider of market data and post-trade services for the global fixed-income markets, today announced the appointment of Michael Baker as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), effective as of today. 

In his role, Mr. Baker will have global responsibility for all software development, which will include strategy, architecture, development and deployment of our trading system, with a particular focus on  MarketAxess’ next generation technology solutions. This includes continuing to build innovative trading solutions, as well as supporting the firm’s internal architecture.  Mr. Baker will report to Nick Themelis, Chief Information Officer. 

“Mike’s experience at both investor and market-making firms make him ideally suited to help support our global institutional buy- and sell-side client base,” said Nick Themelis. “His knowledge gained from his more recent work on cloud computing will be a valuable contribution to MarketAxess’ development process.”

Mr. Baker joins MarketAxess from Fidelity Investments, where he served as the Head of Enterprise Cloud Computing. He was responsible for Fidelity’s digital and agile transformation to the cloud, allowing the firm to leverage the cloud for innovation, increase velocity and reduce costs. Mr. Baker also supported the development of cloud security, governance and operations, delivering over one hundred business applications across all of Fidelity’s business units. 

“I’m thrilled to be joining a firm with such a solid track record of technological innovation,” noted Mr. Baker. “MarketAxess is at the meeting point of the entire fixed income market, supporting the needs of all participants across the trading lifecycle.  The technology that MarketAxess is developing is driving greater efficiency and automation in fixed income and I’m looking forward to being a part of that evolution.”

Prior to Fidelity, Mr. Baker was the Managing Director, Head of High Frequency Trading and Asset Management Infrastructure and Engineering for Citadel Investment Group.  While at Citadel, he led the Engineering Department, responsible for assessing and deploying new technology, ultimately helping the firm integrate industry recognized high-frequency market-making technology. He began his career with Salomon Brothers in New York as a Software Engineer. 

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess operates a leading, institutional electronic trading platform delivering expanded liquidity opportunities, improved execution quality and significant cost savings across global fixed-income markets.  More than 1,500 firms - comprising the world’s leading asset managers and institutional broker-dealers - traded a record $1.7 trillion of U.S. investment-grade bonds, U.S. high yield bonds, emerging market debt, Eurobonds and other fixed income securities through MarketAxess’ patented trading technology in 2018.   MarketAxess’ award-winning Open Trading™ marketplace is regarded as the preferred all-to-all trading solution in the global credit markets, creating a unique liquidity pool for the broad range of credit market participants.  Drawing on its deep data and analytical resources, MarketAxess enables automated trading solutions and, through its Trax® division, provides a range of pre- and post-trade services and products.

MarketAxess is headquartered in New York and has offices in London, Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, São Paulo, Hong Kong and Singapore. For more information, please visit www.marketaxess.com

Media Relations Contacts:
Kyle White (New York)
+1 212 813 6355
kwhite@marketaxess.com

Toby West (London)
+44 (0) 207 709 3270
twest@marketaxess.com