Management

Douglas Cifu is the Chief Executive Officer of Virtu Financial and was a co-founder of Virtu in 2008. Previously, he was a partner at the international law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. At Paul Weiss, Mr. Cifu served as a member of the Management Committee, Deputy Chair of the Corporate Department and co-head of the Private Equity Group.

He is recognized in Chambers USA and Legal 500 as a leading mergers and acquisitions lawyer for buyouts and private equity transactions. In 2006, Private Equity International listed him among the 30 most influential lawyers currently working in global private equity, citing his expertise in technology-driven sectors. He has been recognized by Crain’s New York Business in its “Technology 100,” a listing of the top 100 people working in technology in the New York area. In 2020, he was recognized as the #3 top FinTech CEO by The Financial Technology Report.

He serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the board of visitors of Columbia College at Columbia University.

Mr. Cifu earned his J.D. at Columbia Law School in 1990 and his B.A. magna cum laude from Columbia University in 1987 where he was also elected as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Steve Cavoli is Executive Vice President, Head of Execution Services, US and Latin America. He joined Virtu in 2015 from Morgan Stanley where he had worked since 2004; he previously worked at Instinet. Mr. Cavoli graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1992 and served nearly eight years as an infantry officer.

Brett Fairclough is a Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer at Virtu Financial, where he has worked since 2007. He was the Managing Director of Asia Pacific operations from 2014 to 2019 and the Chief Compliance Officer of Virtu’s broker dealers from 2012 to 2014. He has also worked closely with exchanges and other industry participants to foster the growth and development of securities markets globally.

Mr. Fairclough graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Joe Molluso is Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of Virtu. Mr. Molluso joined Virtu in 2013 as Chief Financial Officer. After a brief departure in 2019 to serve as Chief Financial Officer of Capitolis, Mr. Molluso rejoined Virtu in 2020. During his tenure at Virtu, Mr. Molluso has been responsible for all aspects of Virtu's finances, operations and day-to-day management. He played a central role in Virtu's completed merger and integration of KCG Holdings and ITG as well as its Initial Public Offering in 2015.

Prior to joining Virtu, Mr. Molluso was a Managing Director for J.P. Morgan in the Investment Banking Department. Mr. Molluso joined J.P. Morgan in 2006. As an investment banker, Mr. Molluso provided strategic advice to financial institutions with a focus on market structure related companies. Mr. Molluso has advised on many of the landmark transactions among global exchanges and clearing firms. Prior to J.P. Morgan, he was an investment banker specializing in financial services companies at DLJ and its successor, Credit Suisse, where he helped establish the global financial technology group. Mr. Molluso received a MBA from New York University.

Cindy Lee is the Chief Financial Officer of Virtu Financial. Ms. Lee joined Virtu in 2011 and has served as the Global Controller and Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Virtu. She holds a Master of Science in Accounting and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Connecticut. Prior to joining Virtu, Ms. Lee started her career at Deloitte & Touche as an Audit Accountant. Ms. Lee is a Certified Public Accountant.

Aaron Simons is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Virtu Financial. He joined Virtu in 2008 after leaving postdoctoral research in theoretical physics, and has worked in many areas of both trading and technology within the firm. Aaron earned a BS in Mathematics from Caltech in 2002 and a PhD in Physics from Harvard in 2007.

Rob Boardman is the CEO of Virtu Execution Services, EMEA. Mr. Boardman’s career began in 1994 at Goldman Sachs, where he filled various roles in deploying trading technology to institutional clients before joining ITG in 2006. He was a founding member of the European FIX Protocol organization in the late 1990s, when standards for electronic trading were formed; he was global head of its marketing working group in 2001. 

Mr. Boardman earned undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in particle physics at the University of Oxford, where he participated in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory scientific collaboration.

Kevin O’Connor is the Head of Analytics and Workflow Solutions. Prior to joining ITG in 2005, Mr. O’Connor was a consultant focusing on financial services technology and, before that, worked in fixed income for Deutsche Bank and GE Asset Management.

Mr. O’Connor holds a B.A. in economics and computer science from Colgate University.

Andrew Smith joined Virtu in 2009 and leads Global Business Development and Corporate Strategy, working to help grow and scale Virtu’s global market-making businesses. His responsibilities include analyzing the market structures of the global FX and Americas equity and futures markets; advancing and distributing Virtu’s customized liquidity offerings; expanding relationships with banks’ trading desks, exchanges, dark pools, counterparties and brokers; evaluating new technologies; and navigating potential benefits and challenges of new regulation. He also previously headed investor relations since the Company’s 2015 IPO. Mr. Smith is also a member of Virtu’s management committee. 

Previously, he was a senior associate at L.E.K. Consulting, working on business development, venture analysis, product launch strategy design/development, and process improvement.

Mr. Smith earned a B.S. in accounting from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University.

Justin Waldie serves as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Virtu Financial. He joined the company in 2011, prior to which he was an associate at the international law firm Milbank LLP where he served in the finance practice group. Mr. Waldie received a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Based in Hong Kong, Phil Chevalier serves as Co-Head of APAC’s Virtu Execution Services team and lends his expertise to help oversee the firm’s agency trading and Workflow Technology in the region. Mr. Chevalier joined ITG in 2015—prior to the firms’ 2019 acquisition by Virtu Financial.

Previously, Mr. Chevalier held roles in the financial technology field and specializing in execution management systems (EMSs), portfolio management and order management systems (OMSs) at firms such as Advent Software and Eze Software Group.

Mr. Chevalier holds a B.A. in both Political Science and Communications from Boston College.

Based in Hong Kong, Alasdair Thomson serves as Co-Head and Chief Operating Officer for Virtu Execution Services in the APAC region. Mr. Thomson joined ITG in 2001—prior to the firms’ 2019 acquisition by Virtu Financial.

Previously, Mr. Thomson held various roles within the financial services industry including positions with Citicorp Scrimgeour Vickers and Baring Securities and was the founder and CEO of Australian Clearing Services, the first outsourced cash equities agency clearing offering in Australia.