If you lose your job as a technologist in a bank now, there are alternatives. A friendly fintech might hire you. Even better, it might hire you to be the boss – rather than to be one managing director or executive director among many.
Chris Peake, the former senior software development director at Nomura, has just demonstrated this truth. After leaving Nomura in October, Peake has just turned up at Smarterly, a fintech firm that provides ISAs. There, he will be the chief technology officer (CTO).
Until now, Peake’s entire career had been in banking technology. He began working for Lehman Brothers in 2003 before moving to Nomura in 2008. There he remained until two months ago, most recently as an executive director in corporate technology services, having previously focused on technology underpinning equities trading.
Smarterly was founded in 2014 by Ben Pollard, a former actuary who wanted to simplify the process of starting an ISA. Peake isn’t the only ex-markets professional there. – Smarterly’s head of sales, Ben Hollingdale, is a former hedge fund execution trader from a hedge fund.
Other banking technologists seem to be realizing the possibility of becoming bigger fishes in smaller ponds outside of banking. Tim Hooley, a former Goldman Sachs technology managing director, recently joined open source enterprise software provider Red Hat as CTO for EMEA financial services clients.
