Issue Brief / Index Forum & Networking Reception

Steven Bloom

Assistant Professor of Economics, USMA - West Point

Steven M. Bloom joined the U.S.M.A. faculty at West Point in July 2010 to direct the financial economics curriculum. He taught Principles of Economics (SS201) in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011, Financial Statement Analysis (SS394) in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, and Fall 2012, and Principles of Finance (SS494) in Spring 2013. In May 2011, Dr. Bloom was honored with the Department of Social Sciences’ William F. Murdy Award for Teaching Excellence.

Besides serving on the faculty at U.S.M.A.-West Point, Dr. Bloom is also Principal of Capital Markets International Consulting (Capmark®), a firm specializing in the development, institutional marketing, and research of financial products for the global capital markets. Previously, Dr. Bloom served as Senior Vice President for The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. in charge of its Financial Products business unit. He also served at National Economic Research Associates as Senior Consultant in Securities and Finance, and at the American Stock Exchange as Chief Economist, Senior Vice President for Equity Research, and Vice President for New Products Development. His consulting clients have included the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, JPMorgan Chase, the Bank of New York, the NASDAQ Stock Market, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the Sydney Futures Exchange, Yorkville ETF Advisors, and Fortune magazine, among others.

Over the past twenty five years, Dr. Bloom has helped develop and market stock indexes, derivative securities, and other financial instruments. While at the American Stock Exchange, he contributed significantly to the creation, development, and launch of SPDRs® (Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts®), the first and today still the largest and most actively traded Exchange Traded Fund in the world. Since then, he has helped popularize ETFs in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia/Pacific region as a new class of financial securities which has now grown to over two trillion dollars in worldwide assets under management. He also contributed to the creation and launch of QQQ® for the NASDAQ Stock Market, an ETF which is among the largest and most actively traded equity securities in the world. To help commemorate the 20th anniversary of the launch of SPDRs, on 29 January 2013 Dr. Bloom was honored to ring the opening bell on the trading floor of the N.Y.S.E.


In 2004, Dr. Bloom was the first recipient of the Skip Viragh Award for innovation and integrity in the financial services industry. He holds an A.M. and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. He has served as arbitrator for FINRA (previously NYSE and NASD) since 1996, and has held Series 7 and Series 63 registrations. Dr. Bloom was featured in the cover story “Wall Street Rocket Scientists” in the premier issue of Worth magazine in 1992.

Colin Clark

Senior Vice President Strategic Analysis and Market Data, NYSE Euronext

Colin Clark is Senior Vice President of the Strategic Analysis & Market Data group in the U.S. Cash Markets division at NYSE Euronext. He joined the company in March 2005. Mr. Clark leads the team responsible for formulating market strategy, setting pricing and monitoring market structure developments, regulatory changes, competitor trends, client order flow behavior and market quality performance. In July 2010, Mr. Clark took on the broader role of managing the Consolidated Tape Administration (CTA) market data business. In August 2011, Mr. Clark was elected a member of the Board of Directors of NYSE Amex Options.

Prior to joining the Exchange, Mr. Clark was an equity research analyst covering brokerage firms and exchanges for five years at Merrill Lynch and Citigroup/Salomon Smith Barney. In 2004, Mr. Clark was ranked by The Wall Street Journal the #2 stock picker based on performance scores in the Investment Services sector. Additionally, Mr. Clark was recognized by Institutional Investor (II) magazine as a member of the #1 equity research team in the Broker-Dealer & Asset Manager sector in 2003 and 2004.

Mr. Clark has a BA in Economics at Bard College and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. Mr. Clark is a registered Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Srikant Dash

Head of Index Business, Bloomberg

Bernard Donefer

Distinguished Lecturer and Associate Director Subotnick Financial Services Cente, Baruch College

John Farris

Executive Vice President, RIMES Technologies

John Farris is an Executive Vice President, Head of Sales for North America. John joined RIMES in September of 2009. Prior to joining RIMES, John was a Senior Vice President with Brandywine Global Investment in Philadelphia, PA, where he was head of Business Development for the Quantitative Equity Group. Prior to Brandywine, John spent 13 years with Standard & Poor’s in a variety of leadership roles, most recently as Vice President of Business and Market Development with the Index and Portfolio services division. During John’s tenure at Standard & Poor’s, he worked closely with RIMES while he was leading S&P’s Third Party partnership group. John holds an MBA in Finance and a BS in Computer Science from La Salle University.

Jason Gottlieb

Counsel, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP

Mr. Gottlieb is counsel in the litigation group at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP. His practice focuses on commercial litigation and arbitration relating to securities, financial products, financial markets, real estate, and intellectual property. Mr. Gottlieb's recent experience includes litigation and regulatory work relating to high-frequency trading, commodities futures markets, and structured finance.
Mr. Gottlieb has represented major international manufacturing and trading companies, banks, hedge funds, private equity funds, and individuals.
Mr. Gottlieb has spoken widely on financial markets litigation, and has published articles on various topics in financial markets law, including Stay Afloat in the New Wave of High-Frequency Trading Actions, The Past Is Never Dead: Gabelli v. SEC, and A Legal Framework for Launching a Stock Exchange in an Underdeveloped Country.

Anshuman Jaswal

Senior Analyst, Celent

Anshuman Jaswal is a Senior Analyst in Celent’s Securities & Investments group and is based in the New York office. He has written more than seventy reports on a variety of topics in the capital markets including derivatives, electronic trading, market infrastructure and regulation, and commodity markets. Dr. Jaswal has been quoted regularly in the media, including the Financial Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, BusinessWeek, International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Letter, Economic Times, Business Standard, The Hindu Business Line, Financial Express, The Trade News, MarketsMedia, Advanced Trading, Securities Industry News, and Hedgeweek.

Before joining Celent, Dr. Jaswal had varied work experience in corporate banking, market research & consulting, and life insurance & wealth management. He has also been a founding partner in an education-based business.

Dr. Jaswal is a Fellow in Management (equivalent of a PhD) with a specialization in Economics from India’s premier B-school, IIM Ahmedabad. Earlier, he completed his B.Sc. Economics (Honours) from School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, with a specialization in the Economics of Japan, China, and India, followed by an MBA in Finance at NMIMS, Mumbai. He is fluent in English and Hindi, has studied Spanish at the intermediate level, and speaks basic French and German.

Michael Neff

Market Data Services, Deutsche Bank AG

Michael Neff joined Deutsche Bank’s Market Data Contracts Team back in 2007. He took on the role of heading up the newly created Global Index Team, tasked with putting in place the structure to source, license and manage all of DB’s Index Market Data and Derivative product licensing. Mike has over 25 years of experience in financial services, including having held senior positions at a Technical Analysis Software provider (Aspen Research Group) and heading up the Market Data Services for a Commodities Exchange (New York Board of Trade). Mike has a degree in Electronic Engineering (and a Master at Fatherhood, having raised 6 kids!).

Linda Rolufs

Vice President, SDM Office of Data Management, BNY Mellon

Michael Schwartz

Product Manager, Interactive Data

Michael Schwartz recently joined Interactive Data as Product Manager for the real-time data feed. He has a comprehensive background in Financial Services technology management at both buy-side and sell-side firms. Michael’s experience includes serving as COO of Global Trading for AllianceBernstein and CTO for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Prior to holding these roles, Michael worked at Deutsche Bank, Cantor Fitzgerald, Nomura and Thomson Reuters in a variety of technology positions.

John Simons

Director, Market Data Management, John Hancock

John Simons joined John Hancock in March, 2010 and serves as the leader of market data services across all Hancock and Manulife entities. Prior to joining Hancock, John spent 15 years at Fidelity Investments where he held multiple roles including Vice President of world-wide market data and head of Finance for the Software Development organization. John also had a long tenure at Digital Equipment Corporation where he was group Finance Manager in many business units.
John has an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA in History and Classics from The College of the Holy Cross.