Score one for Credit Suisse, which has seen defections from its ranks over the last several months. The bank lured Dan Silber, a senior fixed income salesman at HSBC, to be its next Head of Foreign Exchange and Emerging Market FX Sales. Silber, who has held various senior positions at HSBC over the course of 14 years since joining as a managing director in 2003, left in late November, according to his Finra broker page. Prior to HSBC, he was a Managing Director with Goldman Sachs an worked in FX sales, head of the FX and Metals Group and was Deputy Head of Global Markets.

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

Instinet  is expanding its Quantitative Research and Development Group and hired David Firmin as Global Head of Trading Research and  to drive US quantitative trading research and development strategy.

Firmin has been with Instinet for more than 15 years and has held a number of senior electronic and algorithmic trading technology, strategy and client engagement positions in Europe, Asia-Pacific and, currently, the Americas. He is based in New York. Additionally, Brian Bulthuis has joined Instinet to lead its US quantitative trading strategy team and further drive the agency broker’s expansion of its quantitative analysis and strategic execution consulting offering in the US. Bulthuis most recently was Head of Quantitative Research, Client Electronic Trading at Virtu and has more than a decade of experience in the quantitative space.

Blockchain technology provider AlphaPoint has hired former Nasdaq data exec Salil Donde as CEO. Donde left Nasdaq in late 2016, where he had served as executive vice president of Global Information Services since the start of 2015.

Academy Securities, a registered broker-dealer, certified Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE), and Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), announced the addition of Lieutenant General Rhett Hernandez to its Advisory Board. Lieutenant General Hernandez served in the United States Army for 39 Years and was the first Commander of Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER), where he was responsible for the daily operations, defense and risk management of all Army networks with 1.2 million users. As the Army’s lead for all cyberspace activity, Lieutenant General Hernandez built a cyber force of more than 17,000 people and led the development of a wide range of concepts, plans and programs to minimize cyber risk and ensure Army operations. Lieutenant General Hernandez previously served as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Army Operations; Chief, U.S. Military Training Mission, Saudi Arabia; and Commanding General, Human Resources Command. In all three positions, he was involved in key issues and decisions at the highest levels.

Sun Life Investment Management announced the appointment of Sam Tillinghast, President, U.S. Private Credit. In this new role, Tillinghast will be responsible for leading Sun Life Investment Management’s existing U.S. Private Fixed Income Group, as well as growing its third-party institutional business.  In this role, he is responsible for broadening the opportunity set of existing transaction types, leveraging and deepening existing relationships, and developing new business opportunities and new markets in the U.S. With over 30 years’ of experience as both a business builder and credit investor, Tillinghast was most recently Co-Chief Executive Officer of THL Credit Advisors, a US$10B alternative credit manager that he co-founded in 2007. Prior to this, Mr. Tillinghast worked for AIG as Managing Director and Head of the Private Placement Group. Based in Sun Life Investment Management’s Wellesley, Massachusetts office, he will join the team on January 2, 2018 and report to Candace Shaw, Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager, Private Fixed Income, Sun Life Investment Management.

Illuminate Financial Management LLP, a venture capital firm specializing in capital markets technology, has expanded its team with the appointment of former UBS and IHS Markit Managing Director, Roger Spooner as Head of Strategic Relationships. Andrew Patey, former Group Finance Manager at Octopus Investments has also joined as Head of Finance.

Previously on the firm’s Executives in Residence program, Spooner will now manage the relationship between buy side and sell-side institutions and Illuminate Financial’s portfolio companies, as well as its extensive pipeline of fintech firms. He spent over a decade at IHS Markit, serving in a variety of roles including Head of EMEA Sales and Head of Global Client Management. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director for UBS Investment Bank and WestLB where he was Global Head of Primary Markets. As Head of Finance, Patey, previously with venture capital firm Octopus Investments and a member of Deloitte’s Entrepreneurial Business Team, will work closely with Illuminate’s portfolio companies to maximise investment value.

The latest ex-KCG trader to resurface is Paul Bermingham, the former head of ETF European trading at KCG Holdings in London. He’s just joined Susquehanna International Group (SIG) as a senior trader. Bermingham started out as an ETF trader at SIG in 2007 and has focused on ETFs throughout his career. He has worked at Credit Suisse, as an ETF strategist, and was also formerly head portfolio manager at rival HFT, Tower Research Capital.

Deutsche Bank’s head of emerging market fixed income sales in Europe has left the bank within months of joining. Ken Reich, whose hire by the German lender was announced in September, has left. He was based in London and reported to global emerging market sales head David Posen. Reich was hired from Man Financial but had previously worked at Deutsche Bank running global foreign exchange sales.

Overbond has announced the appointment of George Harrington as the company’s Head of U.S. Business Development. Harrington is a seasoned Debt Capital Markets professional, having held senior executive roles across the financial services industry, including Head of Global Markets at Bloomberg where he led global FICC sales and product teams. In this role, he was responsible for the overall strategy and delivery of Bloomberg fixed income, foreign exchange, and execution management platforms.