KEVIN HOUSTOUN
Co-Chair of the FPL Global Technical Committee
After graduating, in 1985, with an engineering and management degree, Kevin joined KPMG as a trainee and then as a consultant. Kevin spent 4 years working on various assignments ranging from the counting sheep at Sandringham to designing and coding a swaps valuation system.
Leaving KPMG in 1989 Kevin worked as a self employed consultant for 2 years and then as part of the team that acquired the magnetic separation business of Cryogenic Consultants Limited from receivership. This business was put on a sound footing and a majority shareholding was sold to an American investor (Carpco Inc). Here I worked as joint managing director on business strategy, general and financial management and line reporting into the US parent company. The company was eventually acquired by Outokumpu.
In 1996 Kevin joined Robert Fleming, looking at emerging technologies for the group from either an investment or usage perspective. As part of this period Kevin looked at FIX (Financial Information Exchange) as a possible candidate for use within the firm. Having concluded that FIX was a useful piece of technology for Robert Fleming Asset Management but FIX engines were, at the time, a little more than expensive parsing software Kevin then wrote a FIX engine. Robert Flemings gave this FIX engine away as a tool to help others learn about FIX.
In 1999 Kevin joined the recently formed European Equity Electronic Trading team at Salomon Brothers. Over the next 5 years this team grew into a large electronic trading operation. In 2005 Kevin moved to HSBC Investment Bank where he is a consultant and represents HSBC on the Global Technical Committee.
Kevin co-leads the Global Technical Committee with Matt Simpson of the CME. Kevin also leads the Repository and Web Services Working Groups and was one of the co leaders on the FIX Program Trading support.
Kevin has outside interests that are developing a number of innovative products in the electronic trading and other spaces. For financial services these include a trading architecture, a distribution network and a middleware ISV working closely with Microsoft to FIX enable the Microsoft BizTalk platform.
http://www.rapidaddition.com.
Most recently Kevin has been involved in the launching of BidRoute, the first automated auction service for equity portfolio trades.
http://www.bidroute.com.
