London, England, United Kingdom
Jon is an expert in the fields of Investments and Technology and CEO of Ryedale - a firm dedicated to improving investment processes through technology. He combines long experience of software engineering with deep knowledge of the investment management business to deliver process improvements to some of the world’s largest asset owners and asset managers. Prior to founding Ryedale, Jon was a managing director with BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors where he made important technical contributions to a number of investment systems. He also taught classes on the application of technology to finance at Warwick Business School where he was Professor of Practice in the Finance group. Jon is a highly experienced leader of top-class software project teams in the field of quantitative asset management. He holds a CFA charter, an MBA in Technology Management, and a Master’s degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University.
Ryedale develops software that sets new standards for investment platforms by being more in tune with what portfolio managers actually need and by utilising cloud technology that is at least a decade ahead of others.
I thoroughly enjoyed teaching: distilling my theoretical and practical knowledge of finance and IT into teachable modules for the Master of Finance programme at WBS. I still do guest lectures, and would be interested to hear from any Masters Finance programmes serious about teaching students about financial technology.
Lead technologist and manager of development teams within Global Macro and Multi-Asset investment teams. Led development of Pi - a multi-asset portfolio management system which ran BGI's 70bn active currency business. Also acted an investment strategist for BlackRock's $8bn Global Ascent hedge fund, engaging with clients and prospects.
Developed 'Index Analysis' or IA, a system for the efficient management of index funds, including risk analysis, portfolio construction, order management, transaction cost estimation, index projection and cash equitization. The system's success (in 2016 it was still the PM system used for over $1 trillion of index funds at BlackRock) led to senior technology leadership responsibilities including Global Macro hedge funds, ETFs, asset allocation, currency hedging, and transitions.
Owner and leader of small software development business, specializing in complex technical areas such as CAD and finance. Contracted internationally.
Development team leader for a variety of client-server banking applications, including: credit card fraud, a retailer invoicing system, image processing and workflow (WinWork, FileNet), a large credit card transaction database and viewer for use in call centres.