The 2017 Tech 40: Lee Olesky

Tradeweb Markets has more than just longevity going for it, according to Lee Olesky. "We have the advantage of networks," says the 55-year-old chief executive officer, who helped start Tradeweb while working at Credit Suisse First Boston in the 1990s. An institutional electronic trading pioneer — Tradeweb introduced an online marketplace for U.S. Treasuries in 1998 — the New York–based firm has expanded into more than 25 fixed-income and derivative asset classes, as well as exchange-traded funds. The expansion was done through three divisions: institutional, or dealer to client (Tradeweb); wholesale, or interdealer (Dealerweb); and retail (Tradeweb Direct). The businesses tend over time to overlap and converge, and that's where the network advantage comes in. As the industry matures and consolidates, Olesky says, "we are in a position to leverage technology and the network to improve services to clients." Tradeweb's U.S. credit trading activity hit a record $18.8 billion in May, the same month it introduced an all-to-all corporate bond trading service called Blast A2A. Tradeweb, owned by a Thomson Reuters–led group, has meanwhile attracted banks to a separate service assisting with trade transparency requirements under MiFID II, the pending regulatory revision to Europe's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.