Portware announced the appointment of two industry veterans to head up its newly formed Product Strategy Group.

The group will be led by co-heads Jim Feingold and Harrell Smith and will be aimed at spearheading product innovation and proactive development.

“There are more and more changes occurring in the market microstructures across the globe and while it’s good to have an organization that is nimble enough to be reactive to client demand, we’d like to take that a step further and take a proactive approach,” says Feingold.

“Portware has started to grow at a substantial rate and while we always focused on client input and requirements to make sure we were positioned correctly, we thought it was necessary now to create a dedicated team…to make sure we stay ahead of the curve and retain our position,” he explains.

Feingold adds that some of the enhancements Portware is already working on include the addition of new asset classes to the platform. “Being able to trade multiple asset classes within one system is a big requirement of all the broker dealers and the buy side is also interested in it to look at risk across assets and true cross asset trading strategies,” notes Feingold.

Foreign Exchange in particular will be the first major focus. Feingold says that the increasing demand from client and the fragmented market for executing FX trades is leading Portware to provide new and enhanced functionality in this area. He adds that the group will also be charged with working closely with its broker/dealer partners in order to help them effectively connect to the buy side.

The Product Strategy Group will be run out of Portware’s New York office and will be growing both here in the U.S. and abroad. Feingold says he will be looking to hire in other regions, such as the newly opened Hong Kong office and the London location.

Feingold joins Portware from Progress Software where he was head of North American Sales for the company’s algorithmic trading products. He has spent more than 24 years in the industry. Smith previously managed Celent’s Institutional Securities and Investments Practice and has worked in equity and commodity derivatives as well.

Portware also announced the appointment of Bill James to senior salesperson in the New York office and Steve Hovagimyan as chief administrative officer, managing financial, legal and HR functions for the company.

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