The 2014 Tech 50: Tyler Kim

July 08, 2014

< The 2014 Tech 50: Moving Out of the Lab and Into the Cloud

Tyler Kim

Chief Information Officer

MaplesFS

Last year: 46

A niche fund servicer with $45 billion under administration might ordinarily be expected to be a technology backwater, heavily dependent on outsourcing. But Montreal-based MaplesFS, led by chief information officer Tyler Kim, defies the stereotype. Maples Fund Services, the administrator, is merely the “old school” core, Kim says, of a broadening business portfolio that requires the flexibility, control and reliability of in-house technology. As of this year Kim’s team of 50-plus has taken responsibility for previously hosted infrastructure and data-management-related applications, the core system of the Maples Fiduciary unit and even local support for eight offices worldwide. “In-house capability outstrips what vendors can do,” asserts the Stanford University industrial engineering graduate and former hedge fund CTO, who was hired in 2009 by MaplesFS’s parent, offshore law firm Maples and Calder, and given a broad “transformation” mandate. By 2011 “our focus was on growth, and technology was seen as the enabler,” says the 40-year-old. “Now we’re growing in leaps and bounds.” Revenue was up 29.6 percent year-over-year through April. Fueling the growth are services like risk reporting (Texas Tech University is the first endowment client) and fund compliance support to help clients address regulations like Europe’s alternative-investments directive and the U.S.’s form PF. That added dimension “is what makes this job so great,” Kim says.

The 2014 Tech 50