George Macdonald
CEO MACD
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George Macdonald has been working in financial markets for over 20 years. He has a solid experience in the formation, development and leadership of an international software company. He is responsible for the customer orientated completion of projects; through conception, development, implementation, all the way through to hosting and support.
After completing his degree in computer science at Manchester University in 1989 he moved, shortly before the fall of the Berlin wall, to Aachen in Germany, in order to work for IBM. There he developed an FX trading platform for the ING bank in Amsterdam.
Three years later he returned to England and worked for the family company Macdonald Associates Ltd. in Reading. Here he developed software in C for various customers - in particular auction houses that he supported in their move to an electronic computer system.
In 1996 he moved together with his wife to Switzerland, where he worked for eight years at the SIX Swiss Exchange as a consultant. In the project "Elektronische Börse Schweiz", he supported the participant banks in the migration from ring trading to a fully electronic platform.
During the international expansion of MACD, in addition to the introduction and development of the core product GLOX, he provided consultancy to well-known companies such as SIX Swiss Exchange, UBS, Barclays Capital, Boerse Stuttgart and Erste Bank.
He believes that there is still a great deal of evolution in electronic trading ahead, in particular in the less liquid markets. He encourages this exciting development in various ways including membership of the FIX Protocol Organization FPL.
George Macdonald is married and lives with his wife and two daughters, who were both born in Switzerland, in Maur near Zürich. |
Lucas Fowler
Director MACD
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Lucas Fowler made his first experiences in writing a software program as a 11 years old boy with a 8-Bit-Microprocessor MOS Technology 6502 and the former programming tool Assembler. After his degree in Physics at the University of Exeter (UK) his affinity to computer science led him 1989 to Aachen (DE), where he worked for the company Informatik Forum, which was taken over by IBM later.
For a period of more than 10 years he worked in various consulting projects throughout Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland - mainly in the banking environment. Due to his activities he recognized the potential of Java as medium for the service architecture. One of the projects was the launch of the first direct customer trading at the former German derivatives exchange in Frankfurt, where he worked as project manager.
1989 he got to know to George Macdonald and worked with him in different project in the following years. 10 years later George asked him to become a partner of the family owned company Macdonald Associates. Lucas said: "Yes!" and became the first Macdonalds Associate besides the family members.
George and Lucas followed the goal to build up a center for software development while the were still working as consultants. They chose Aachen as location because of the central position in Europe and the RWTH Aachen University as one of the biggest universities for technical studies in Germany.
After the establishment of the Aachen Office and the successful development of the trading system GLOX and the introduction to various banks Lucas moved with his family 2006 to Switzerland. Since then he supports the meanwhile increased number of Swiss customers individually on site.
Lucas Fowler is married and lives with his wife and his son in Egg near Zurich. |
Tomas Fort
Sales & Account Management MACD
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After his apprenticeship in the Travel Agency Kuoni Reisen AG in Zurich, Tomas Fort joined the Member Services Team of the SIX Swiss Exchange.
He was responsible to consult and support the members of the exchange and the security dealers in their connectivity to the exchange from the business perspective. This included consultancy in regulatory issues (e.g. Reporting, Stamp Tax, Auditing), functional support and consulting in the trading value chain (trading, clearing, settlement). From 2008 to 2010 Tomas led the Team Member Services in Zurich.
In addition to his work Tomas completed his Bachelor Degree at the University of Business Administration and Applied Sciences in Zürich in 2007.
Since 2010 Tomas works as a Sales & Account Manager at MACD and leads the Marketing & Communication Team.
Tomas is married, has a daughter and lives close to Zurich. |
