Schwab’s CIO Departs

Geoffrey Penney, Chief Information Officer of the San Francisco-based Charles Schwab Corporation, left the retail brokerage firm and has been replaced by Gideon Sasson, the head of Schwab's active trader group, according to a Schwab spokesman. The active trader group includes CyberTrader.

An internal memo, which was distributed in late June, stated that Penney is retiring effective July 1.

A Schwab spokesman denied that Penney was asked to resign. He added, "All I can say is Geoff retired. Geoff has roots back on the East Coast and had a long and extremely admirable career at Schwab."

Penney joined Schwab in 1997, and he was originally in charge of financial products and international technologies. He was appointed CIO in 2001.

Meanwhile, Schwab's new CIO, Sasson, joined the firm in 1995 to focus on electronic brokerage technology, an area that he later headed. Prior to becoming CIO, Sasson had overall responsibility for the general management and strategy behind Schwab's retail active trader business, including CyberTrader, a pioneer in developing smart-order routing software that scans electronic communications networks, market makers and exchanges for the best prices available. In his new role, Sasson will oversee the technology organization, and he will report to Dawn Lepore, vice chairman of Schwab. 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