Liquidnet has appointed Eric Blake as Head of Latin America, responsible for expanding Liquidnet’s business in the region, with an immediate focus on identifying new sources of actionable liquidity and delivering tailored technology solutions to both local and international asset managers.
Eric Blake joins Liquidnet after serving as Head of Electronic Trading at BTG Pactual, a local Brazilian investment bank, where he was responsible for the strategic deployment of BTG’s electronic execution products and the creation of the first electronic block trading facility in Brazil uniting both local Brazilian and foreign institutional clients for systematic trading.
As part of his more than 25 years of experience across both domestic and international capital markets, Eric Blake also spent 12 years at Investment Technology Group (ITG) as Managing Director holding various leadership positions, including Global Portfolio Trading and the firms’ expansion into Latin America.
The technology-driven agency execution specialist will leverage the industry veteran’s expertise while based in New York, and reporting directly to Alan Polo, Head of Equities Sales and Trading, Americas.
“Sources of liquidity in Latin America can be limited”
Alan Polo, Head of Sales and Trading, Americas, said: “Our commitment to helping institutional investors achieve better outcomes through deeper liquidity pools and broader global opportunities is central to our strategy. Eric’s addition to our team marks a significant step in advancing our capabilities in Latin America. His experience in the region and his proven track record of building institutional client relationships and product management implementation across sales and trading, marketing, and financial services technology position us well to drive our growth in this critical market.”
Eric Blake, Head of Latin America, commented: “Sources of liquidity in Latin America can be limited, making the block liquidity and price discovery process challenging for asset managers. Liquidnet’s global network of over 1,000 institutional clients and innovative technology position us well to help our clients navigate these challenges and unlock new sources of liquidity in this region. Our goal is to empower asset managers with the same robust solutions we’ve delivered globally, driving more efficient and transparent trading across Latin America.”
Liquidnet previously appointed ex-Morgan Stanley Alex Grinfeld
A few months ago, Liquidnet appointed Alex Grinfeld, formerly Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, Co-Head of the Futures Business in the Americas at Liquidnet. The move was part of Liquidnet’s ambitious strategy to expand its global listed derivatives offerings, which includes the recent launch of innovative solutions aimed at enhancing traders’ decision-making and supporting automation—a domain traditionally dominated by banks.
Joining forces with Brian Cashin, who was previously with Bank of America and joined Liquidnet in March 2022, Alex Grinfeld will co-head the rapidly growing futures business at Liquidnet in the Americas. This marks a significant hire for the technology-driven agency execution firm as the new executive. Prior to his impressive 11-year tenure at Morgan Stanley, Grinfeld held the position of Vice President at Goldman Sachs, focusing on Futures and Derivatives Sales Trading.
Liquidnet has been onboarding top talent across the globe. In Europe, Liquidnet hired industry veterans Dan Noorian and Darren Smith from UBS to lead its Listed Derivatives team in London. With nearly 15 years of experience each at UBS, their expertise mirrors the caliber of hires in the Americas, highlighting Liquidnet’s global approach to strengthening its position in the futures market.
Liquidnet addresses large or illiquid block trades
Earlier this year, Liquidnet launched SuperBlock Matching, an initiative to the Liquidnet equities application that brings new functionality where traders can signal and participate in exceptionally large or illiquid block trades with a single click.
SuperBlock minimum trade size will vary by market and each stock’s market capitalization, focused on assisting with the most difficult executions and orders. By leveraging the firm’s extensive global buy-side community and expertise in facilitating block trades, this new solution suite aims to make it even easier to execute very large blocks of stock within a highly trusted environment.
SuperBlock Matching offers members the choice to match with each other in a fundamentally different way, and offers further control over the execution of their most difficult blocks.
