Exclusive: OANDA APAC senior executive Gavin Ward joins former boss Rajesh Yohannan at AxiCorp

Highly experienced senior FX industry executive Gavin Ward has joined his former superior Rajesh Yohannan in moving from the Asia Pacific operations of OANDA Corporation to rapidly expanding Australian electronic trading firm AxiCorp.

Mr. Ward joins AxiCorp this week after three years at technology led Canadian electronic trading firm OANDA Corporation, where he was Head of Greater China, based in Singapore.

Astute and eloquent Mr. Ward joins AxiCorp at a very interesting period during the successful Australian firm’s next development phase.

In the summer of this year, former OANDA Corporation CEO of Asia Pacific Rajesh Yohannan was appointed CEO of AxiCorp, after which he began implementing the firm’s future growth, a dynamic which was punctuated by Mr. Yohannan’s securing of a multi million round of VC funding in August this year with RGT Capital which was first reported at the time by FinanceFeeds.

At the time, Mr. Yohannan told FinanceFeeds “Diversification in products and markets is important for us and this would be an area of focus. Secondly, technology is rapidly changing everything in the financial services sector. To stay ahead and stay relevant we need to constantly invest in better and faster way of doing things.”

“Launching new products is easy, cross-selling them to your existing base, not so much. Building out new technology tools is question of resources, getting it to deliver it’s promised business value is much trickier” he said.

“As Uber’s recent experience in China shows, succeeding a new region is far more complex than getting into it.”

Mr. Yohannan, who is a very urbane and sophisticated leader, has now brought on board Mr. Ward, with whom he had a very dynamic working relationship at OANDA Corporation’s APAC division.

Mr. Ward has been appointed Global Head Of Business Development at AxiCorp, and will be responsible for the three brands that the company operates, those being AxiTrader which is the firm’s flagship retail brand, providing facilities for online trading of Forex, CFDs, indices and other financial instruments to clients in more than 150 countries around the world as well as
AxiPrime, which is the company’s institutional service, aimed at providing superior trading solutions for large clients including banks, brokers and money managers, and AxiSelect which is a development program designed to provide a path for talented traders towards a successful trading career.

Thus, Mr. Ward’s senior position at AxiCorp continues the synergy between himself CEO Mr. Yohannan that was evident at OANDA Corporation.

Prior to joining OANDA Corporation in December 2013, Mr. Ward was Director of Asia at CMC Markets, based in Singapore between 2007 and 2013, where he defined the British firm’s strategy across the Far East as well as established the firm’s Singapore office as the operational hub for the region.

That particular position represented a promotion from Head of Financial Planning an Analysis, which was his inaugural position at CMC Markets from 2007 until 2009.

Mr. Ward joined CMC Markets from insurance company Allianz Global Assistance in London, where he was Head of Business Analysis for four years between 2003 and 2007, having been promoted from his position as BMW Account Manager which he held between 2000 and 2003.

Initially, Mr. Ward joined Allianz as an Internal Auditor in 1998, representing the first position in his 9 year tenure at Allianz.

Having spent a year prior to that at Deloitte as an Auditor, Mr. Ward began his career after graduating from Kings College London (University of London) in 1994 with a BA Dual Honors degree in French and German, and was educated at the prestigious Calday Grange Grammar School in the Wirral, leaving in 1989.