The 2013 Tech 50: Tom Miglis

One of the hedge fund elite, with $14 billion in assets under management, Chicago-based Citadel has established itself as a major technology player. Since the firm sold its administration business to Northern Trust Corp. in 2011 (seePeter Cherecwich, No. 43), CIO  Tom Miglis has kicked other activities into higher gear. For example, eight-year-old Citadel Execution Services, the leading market maker, extended its capabilities to 26,000 over-the-counter stocks. “It was quite an expansion in the mix of names we have to quote,” remarks Miglis, 59, a former Salomon Brothers CIO who joined Citadel in 2001 and leads a technology team of 500. He is also “looking to double the revenue” of Citadel Technology this year. The four-year-old investment management solutions subsidiary has been headed since September 2012 by trading systems veteran Stuart Breslow, former CEO of RealTick, an ex–Lehman Brothers Holdings unit now owned by Eze Software Group. While on those growth paths, Miglis remains mindful of the need to economize. He cites CEO Kenneth Griffin’s “mantra from the beginning: No matter when you think you’re done, you can always get more efficiency.”  That means making the most of server, network and storage capacity. Cleaning tick and transaction data, he adds, “almost self-funds our equipment by freeing it up for new data.”