The New King of FIX

The FIX Protocol Ltd. Association has elected Michael O'Conor, managing director of global client connectivity at Merrill Lynch, as the first Chairman of its Global Steering Committee. FPL is a non-profit organization owning the rights to Financial Information Exchange, an electronic messaging standard for trading.

O'Conor, who has been active in FPL since 1996, will assume the chair position to represent FPL and help organize the association's activities and plans. O'Conor says that as Chairman his initiatives moving forward include finalizing the new structure of FPL, promoting the projected April release of FIX 4.4 and continuing to focus on coordinating the association's activities with other industry bodies such as the Bond Market Association, SWIFT and ISITC.

But first, he is charged with hiring an executive director, which will be FPL's first full-time, paid position. According to O'Conor, the committee is currently in the interviewing stage and hopes to have the position filled within two months.

Once signed on, he adds, the executive director will have a seat on the GSC and operate in a managerial role for the association, a responsibility formerly held by Jordan & Jordan, a financial-services consultancy. The executive director will also consider other positions that may be necessary on a full-time basis.

In addition to O'Conor's appointment and the impending hire of an executive director, FPL has added three new sub-committees to the GSC, which include Global Fixed Income, Global Derivatives and Global Education & Marketing.

"Given the depth and breadth of the FIX participation in the marketplace, and the emergence of derivatives and fixed income as two critical products where FIX is making a difference now, we felt it was appropriate to add those committees," O'Conor notes.

These new committees, along with the Global Technical Committee and the regional committees of the Americas, Europe, Japan and Asia-Pacific, each have one seat on the GSC.

O'Conor, who is also co-chair of the Americas Committee, provides an example of the duties undertaken by all of the volunteers that serve on the GSC. "We coordinate the use of the FIX protocol within buy-side firms, sell-side firms, vendors and exchanges in the Americas, as well as provide them with support," he says. "We also take the message of the Americas to the GSC and make sure that the Americas are aware of what is going on globally with the protocol."

These executive and organizational changes follow a restructuring phase at FPL. In September of 2002 the organization moved away from its invitation-only structure and undertook a membership drive to gain the expertise and reflect the opinions of all industry participants.