Monitor110 has a New CEO

So it's official: Monitor110, the company I have helped build and lead over the past three years, has announced the hiring of a true world-class financial technology leader, Brennan Carley. His hiring is the result of a thorough search process that yielded several impressive candidates, but none possessing his unusual and powerful balance of technology expertise, strategic thinking, Wall Street experience and leadership. As a Wall Street deal-maker and trading manager, I could only take the company so far, and together with our strong Board recruited Brennan out of NYFIX. Prior to that Brennan had been an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Warburg Pincus, and spent most of his career at the likes of Radianz (where he was a co-founder), Reuters, Instinet and IBM. So now Monitor110 has the technology and business leadership it needs to fully take advantage of the massive market opportunity at the intersection of online data and computational finance, and I couldn't be more happy for both Brennan, the Monitor110 organization and its hedge fund and Wall Street clients. They are all winners in this trade; congratulations to all.

So what about me? I am moving into the role of Chairman, helping Brennan transition and then to be available to him and the entire Board as a trusted advisor. As was the case when I co-founded and joined the company, I am deeply passionate about its mission, its clients and its ability to help change the face of financial intelligence:  helping institutional investors gather, analyze and make money from unstructured data. I also have a pretty healthy rolodex that I will continue to leverage for the benefit of the company and potential clients. I have had a great experience helping to build a world-class early stage company, raising money from and working with leading institutional investors like Draper Fisher Jurvetson and DFJ Gotham Ventures, recruiting top-notch professionals in the fields of computational finance, technology, strategy and research, and, finally, bringing Brennan on board. Throughout my career I have always sought to surround myself with people better than me, with the goal of making myself replaceable at a certain point. And I have finally reached this point at Monitor110.

What will I do with my time? In the near-term I will continue to be an active early-stage investor through IA Capital Partners, having made 10 investments and achieved three exits during 2007. I also have three new deals closing in the next two weeks, and find myself squarely in the middle of high-quality deal flow from both coasts. I enjoy working with strong management teams with big ideas and sound business models, and will continue to do deals as long as I continue to see great young companies to back. I am also doing some work with a group that is taking a public company out of bankruptcy and using the public vehicle in almost a SPAC-type fashion, working to do small and medium-sized buyouts of companies in a select group of verticals in need of consolidation and scale efficiencies. Needless to say, I will continue to write my blog and use the Monitor110 product suite for finding interesting and investable data when I write stock-specific posts. I am also deeply involved in non-profit work associated with my kids' school, Little Red School House/Elisabeth Irwin High School, as well as the Pier 40 Partnership. All this stuff is keeping me pretty busy right now.

In the intermediate term I am considering opportunities to either take a leadership role in the Alternatives business on Wall Street, helping to build and expand a hedge fund platform or to do larger transactions in the private equity world. In each case I want to keep my hand in the investing realm. I miss the markets and big deals; and after three years focusing on emerging growth companies I feel the need to re-visit my roots. I am meeting with business leaders and mentors in each of these areas and will figure out what is the best fit given my background, skills and interests. The ticket to play is having fun and having a big impact. We'll see where it goes. Exciting times, to be sure.

If you want to talk early stage deals, buyouts or making money from alternative data, give me a shout. You know where to find me.

Comments

[June Hiott]

All I want to know is how did you find a new CEO can you tell me

[Jason Wood]

Congratulations Roger; it can be one of the hardest things in the world to hand over the reins, but it sounds like you found someone that makes the decision an easy one.

Looking forward to seeing what you've got planned next, it's been a pleasure getting to know you through the blogosphere and in person over the last 18 months or so.

Best,

Jason

[Trader Mike]

Exciting times Roger. Best of luck in whatever you end up doing. (not that you need it!)

[Darren herman]

Roger, congratulations. It's been a pleasure to work w/u and I'm sure your new chapter in your life will be filled with some amazing context.

[Rich]

Pier 40 Partnership is proud and fortunate to have you as a member!