Former ITG chief executive CEO Bob Gasser has joined Barclays in New York as its head of strategy for markets pre-trade technology, according to a spokesman. Gasser is a good friend of Jes Staley, the bank’s chief executive. The two have a shared history in that both spent time at JP Morgan, where Gasser was head of US equity trading between 1987 and 2001.

Execution broker BTIG has nabbed Chris Amato as its new head of ADR Conversion Trading and Managing Director. Amato, a veteran with over 20 years of experience, is charged with building out the firm’s ADR group and pushing both its high- and low-touch trading platforms. Prior to BTIG, he was Head of Trading at Citadel Execution Services. Before that, he was Director of International Market Making at E*Trade Capital Markets. He has also done stints at as a Head Trader at GMST World Markets, International Asset Advisors and Raymond James and Associates.

If you have a new job or promotion to report, let me know at jdantona@marketsmedia.com

CME Group is getting ready to bring on Owain Johnson, a former managing director at the Dubai Mercantile Exchange, to run its energy research and product development efforts in London. Johnson, who worked for the Merc in Singapore before joining the Dubai-based exchange in late 2012. According to CME, his start date is November 30.

BGC Partners appointed Greg Holley, Societe Generale’s former head of UK sales, to a senior derivatives sales role, according to sources, marking the latest move by the US-based broker to boost its European futures business. Holley, who left SocGen in July after only one year with the firm, is set to start at BGC in a senior sales role early next year following a “gardening leave” period.

Eris Exchange has hired David Helps, a former salesman for Nasdaq NLX and compliance tech vendor b-next, for its London group. Helps comes a few months after the US-based swap futures exchange opened its first London-based office and hired Barclays former head of agency derivatives, Tim Stacks, to lead sales and marketing in Europe.

Boat has appointed Carl Nilsen, former Head of Equities at Oslo Bors, as Director of Sales. Nilson’s appointment follows that of Per Lovén, former Liquidnet Head of International Corporate Strategy. At Boat, Nilson will focus on developing and managing the firm’s customer base with an emphasis on the Northern European client base.

JP Morgan is creating a new electronic markets execution team, as it looks to redirect and redeploy its extant trading strategies towards electronic execution. Following the hire of David Hudson as head of markets execution earlier this year, it has now named Richard James, its current head of currencies and EM execution services, and Peter Ward, head of futures and options executions services, as co-heads for the division’s macro products. The bank also hired Debra Herschmann as head of its CIB user experience from Goldman Sachs.

Virginie Saade, KCG’s European head of regulatory affairs and strategy, has left the firm. Saade originally joined the market-maker Getco in 2010, which merged with retail and institutional broker Knight Capital in 2013 to form KCG. Prior to Getco, Saade had spent over nine years at the European exchange operator Euronext. She also sat on the board of Bats Europe. No replacement has been named as of yet. Her duties included keeping the firm and its clients abreast of regulatory developments and she specialized in MiFID compliance.

Bats Global Markets has named Dave Nadig CEO of the company’s ETF.com division as he rejoins the firm where he played a leadership role from 2008-2015. In his previous tenure as ETF.com’s Chief Investment Officer, he built the company’s ETF data and analytics platform and developed new methodologies for analyzing and rating ETFs. He replaces current CEO David Lichtblau who will be leaving ETF.com at the end of the year.

Conotoxia, a North American subsidiary of the Cinkciarz Group, which operates an online currency exchange market, has hired Paul Finnegan as Chief Executive Officer. Finnegan began his career at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. His background at CBOE includes serving as Director of International Business Development. He has also worked at the Chicago Board of Trade as a Managing Director of Marketing, Director of Retail Derivatives with E*Trade Financial, Senior Vice President for NYSE Euronext and Co-CEO of the NYSE Arca Options Exchange, Chief Executive Officer for Livevol Inc., and Chief Executive Officer for TradingBlock/MoneyBlock.

Former TMX Group executive Kevan Cowan has been appointed chief regulator of a yet-to-be-created Canadian national securities regulator meant to unify the current patchwork of provincial entities, its implementation body said. The TBA regulator will oversee British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Yukon. It is expected to launch sometime in 2018.

More Trading Up:

• TRADING UP: Eze, GTX Appoint CEOs; ICAP Adds Two in Post-Trade
• Trading and Markets Director Stephen Luparello to Leave SEC
• Thomas Sexton to Succeed Daniel Roth as NFA President and CEO on March 1, 2017