Marketcetera Appoints Former Eze Castle President to Advisory Board

Marketcetera, an provider of open source platforms for automated trading, today announced that Christopher Grandi has joined its advisory board. With more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, he joins Marketcetera as a strategic advisor for hedge fund technology and investment services. Grandi has spent the past year founding a new company called The Abacus Group which provides high-level strategy and consulting services to hedge funds and other investment firms. Prior to this he completed a seven-year tenure at Eze Castle Integration where he served as managing director of business development and then president.

“Seven months have now passed since the initial financial markets implosion,” said Graham Miller, CEO, Marketcetera, in a company release. “Investment firms are looking for vendors that can liberate them from being dependent on third parties for innovation. Expert strategists like Chris Grandi understand how to take these opportunities and turn them into revenue. We are energized to have him as one of our advisors.”

Marketcetera will look to Grandi to provide strategic direction for its business development and partnership efforts in the hedge fund and investment technology space. Grandi’s track record at Eze Castle Integration, which included day-to-day front office operations, sales, marketing, product development and client services, will help serve as a roadmap for Marketcetera’s aggressive growth plans for 2009 and beyond.

Marketcetera is positioned to unshackle the hundreds of financial firms who are beholden to the lengthy implementation timeframes, infrequent product release schedules and vendor lock-in that comes with proprietary solutions,” said Chris Grandi, president and founder of The Abacus Group, in the release. “My track record in financial technology and information services is a perfect fit for the company’s ambitious growth goals and the transformative technology they are offering the investment industry.”

Prior to Eze Castle Integration, Grandi founded and ran Dynamic Transactions, Inc., an Internet holding company that was acquired by eTimeCapital (Deutsche Bank subsidiary) in 2000. Previously, he was an associate at Goldman Sachs. Grandi holds an MBA from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from University of California at Los Angeles.