Retail forex broker Saxo Bank has continued the build-out of its management team, with the hiring of Jeff Zorek as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Global Sales.
Zorek will be based in London and will report to Matteo Cassina, Global Head of Sales at Saxo Bank.
In this newly created role, Zorek will be responsible for further aligning Saxo’s business model to the evolving trading landscape by helping institutions and private investors navigate through a significant period of change and opportunity for the industry.
Jeff Zorek joins Saxo with over thirty years of financial services experience, managing businesses in securities trading, high speed electronic execution, risk management, clearance, settlement and financing at firms such as Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and most recently Nomura International, where he held the position of Global Co-Head of Prime Brokerage. He holds an MBA from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Commenting on the appointment, Global Head of Sales at Saxo Bank Matteo Cassina said:
Jeff’s appointment is a significant step in our journey towards becoming a key financial markets facilitator for clients looking to adapt their business models to the new trading environment through access to liquidity, product innovation and scale. As a leader in innovation and trading technology, and an agile financial market facilitator, Saxo is uniquely placed to bridge the gap between traditional finance and fintech innovation.
Jeff Zorek added on his new role:
Having worked for traditional investment banks for three decades, I was drawn by a combination of Saxo’s long history in trading innovation and truly multi-asset offering. Saxo has an impressive track record of evolving and diversifying its business to stay ahead in the trading innovation race. The range of what Saxo can do today, from developing a robo-advisory solution for retail investors and partnering with large asset managers to bring innovation to the marketplace, to providing access to liquidity through its prime of prime service is impressive and the potential is huge. I am thrilled to be part of the business at this exciting stage of the journey.
Saxo has continued to attract top talent and build its management team with a number of appointments from major financial institutions over the past 18 months. These include Søren Kyhl, who joined from Danske Bank as Group Chief Operating Officer and is listed as a member of the Management Board; Peter Plester who joined from Rabobank to lead FX prime brokerage; Gerard Lelliott who joined from Deutsche Bank to lead Saxo’s prime of prime services offering; Alessandro Bressan, who joined from Deutsche Bank to lead Saxo’s global equities offering; and Alexander South who joined from Jefferies Bache bringing expertise in the listed derivatives space.