Liquidnet Hires Tabb Group's Adam Sussman

Liquidnet has hired Tabb Group’s Adam Sussman to serve as head of market structure and liquidity partnerships for the company’s global institutional trading network.

In this new role, Sussman will serve as senior advisor on market structure issues offering insights and guidance on industry developments, technological trends, and financial industry changes to Liquidnet’s community of buy side members and customers.

Sussman will also advance Liquidnet’s efforts in identifying new ways to bring additional sources of block of “unique, safe, and actionable block liquidity by building, strengthening partnerships with a broad spectrum of industry participants.

“We had a long relationship with Adam and there is no one better than Adam to be part of this team, to be responsive to our members. No matter how sophisticated the market has become it is constantly changing from a structural standpoint and from a competitive standpoint,” said John Kelly, chief operating officer at Liquidnet in an interview today.

The appointment comes on the heels of Michael Lewis’ book “Flash Boys” triggering an industry debate over the role that high frequency trading plays in the market and whether institutional investors are being front-run by their speed advantage.

“Flashboys has created a conversation, but it’s not new news. This is an old story; our members have been navigating these market complexities,” said Liquidnet’s spokesperson.

In hiring Sussman for the new role, Liquidnet is betting that more changes are in store for U.S. equity markets. “I’ve been on the record in my work at Tabb that there’s still a lot of changes ahead for U.S. equity market structure,” said Sussman in interview. “Those people who have argued that the greatest amount of change is behind us are wrong,” he said, noting that it’s a great time to join Liquidnet to help members through the next two years. It’s going to be just as impactful for the way they trade not just because of “Flash Boys” but from [what’s going on]within the industry and competitive forces,” he said.

Based in New York, Sussman will report to Liquidnet’s head of equities, Brennan Warble and will work closely with leaderships across all regions, according to the release.

Sussman was both a partner and director of research at Tabb, which he joined in 2004 played a key role in advising clients on how to adapt to significant and disruptive trends in equity and debt capital markets. In October 2009 he testified before the U.S. Senate on high -frequency trading, dark pools and naked access in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Sussman has also authored dozens of research notes, reports and studies on the industry. Prior to his work at Tabb, Sussman worked at TD Ameritrade, Inc. as a senior product manager responsible for order-management systems, routing and next generation trading tools focused on the equities and options markets.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio