New York-based low-latency data platform and feed handler provider SR Labs has appointed former NYSE exec Ian McIntyre as chief operating officer in Europe, to spearhead the rollout of new capabilities as part of ongoing changes to the vendor's leadership team following its recent acquisition of the Wombat data platform business from Intercontinental Exchange's NYSE Technologies division.
McIntyre, most recently managing director in NYSE Technologies' content business, responsible for running the vendor's SuperFeed consolidated feed business, joined NYSE in 2008 as part of its $200 million acquisition of Wombat Financial Software, where he served in product management roles.
In his new role─created following SR Labs' acquisition of Wombat (IMD, June 18), which included technology components of the Wombat platform such as the DART Entitlements tool for data usage and compliance analysis and reporting, the MAMA (Middleware-Agnostic Messaging API) high-speed enterprise messaging layer, and SuperFeed as well as "some members of staff"─McIntyre will be responsible for both the SuperFeed and SR Labs product lines for the European markets, reporting to global COO Dipanjan Chatterjee.
"Ian is looking after and ensuring everything operationally, client-wise and development-wise, works seamlessly in Europe," Chatterjee adds.
McIntyre says SR Labs' focus in Europe will be on rolling out new developments to the Wombat platform that had previously been held up by the acquisition of NYSE Euronext by ICE and the subsequent spin-off of elements of NYSE Technologies.
"We've had six to nine months in a stagnant phase with the exit from NYSE, and we had pent-up frustration [because we wanted] to get moving on our initiatives, but SR Labs is more entrepreneurial and akin to Wombat's culture when we were an independent organization, so we are looking forward to pushing to market some new product lines that we have been cooking up in the build-up to this acquisition," McIntyre says.
For example, in Europe, SR Labs is planning to push Wombat as a replacement platform for legacy market data systems, which could deliver potential cost savings. In addition, the vendor is planning to create a new business line that combines the low-latency performance of SR Labs' feed handlers with the normalized, rich content available on Wombat. "The new branch will drive the best of both worlds. We think we can deliver all the benefits of Wombat, with more efficient software," McIntyre says, acknowledging that following the June acquisition, the companies are still in the early stages of the integration.
From a global perspective, SR Labs plans to maintain Wombat's product alongside its own proprietary product line, and will leverage the additional staff to bolster its sales force around the globe. "Previously we were in New York and India and now we have more staff in New York, Chicago, Manila and Belfast, so we are a truly global organization with more products and more personnel, and a great support structure behind it," Chatterjee says.