The 2015 Trading Technology 40: Jerry Dobner

February 02, 2015

#19 Jerry Dobner, Chief Technology Officer, GFI Group

< The 2015 Trading Technology 40: Going with the Flow

Jerry Dobner

Chief Technology Officer

GFI Group

Last year: 15

GFI Group has gotten caught up in a takeover battle. A $580 million deal with Chicago’s CME Group, announced on July 30 and scheduled for completion in early 2015, was countered by a hostile bid from BGC Partners, one of New York–based GFI’s interdealer brokerage rivals. From the point of view of GFI chief technology officer Jerry Dobner, however, those machinations “aren’t changing anything. We are forging ahead. You can see it reflected in our numbers: In some businesses electronic revenues are up to 50 percent,” equaling or overtaking traditional voice brokerage. That is and will remain the bottom line for Dobner, who with an information technology staff of 270 maintains a long-running — and somewhat contrarian — commitment to in-house system development. CME was mainly attracted to Trayport, GFI’s European energy-trading system; the rest of the GFI wholesale brokerage would be sold back to a management group including executive chairman Michael Gooch. “The focus from senior management on the importance of electronic trading is a key to our success,” says Dobner, 44, who joined GFI in 2001 after developing real-time stock-quote software for the NewsAlert site. They invested last year in what Dobner terms “a complete, floor-to-ceiling revamping of our physical computing infrastructure,” coinciding with a move into the Equinix NY4 data center in New Jersey that puts GFI in close proximity to key trading venues.

See also Dobner's profiles in the 2013 Trading Technology 40 and the 2012 Trading Technology 30.

The 2015 Trading Technology 40