Structure and Management
Michael Gooch, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, has been GFI’s chairman and CEO since he founded the business in 1987. Prior to this, Mr. Gooch worked for Refco Group, Bierbaum Martin, Harlow Meyer Savage, Citibank and Tullet & Riley. Mr. Gooch is also the president and majority shareholder of Jersey Partners Inc., GFI’s largest shareholder.
Colin Heffron, President and Director, has been GFI’s president since 2004. Mr. Heffron joined GFI in 1988 as a foreign currency options broker in New York. He moved to London in 1998 to help assist in the establishment of GFI’s London office. From 1991 until 1994, Mr. Heffron headed our global currency options business. From 1994 until 1997, Mr. Heffron ran the day-to-day operations of all of our U.K. businesses and from 1998 he was also joint-head of GFI’s Asian operations. Mr. Heffron has been a GFI director since November 2001.
James A. Peers, Chief Financial Officer, joined GFI in 2002. Mr. Peers was a senior vice president at Bank One in Chicago between 1999 and 2001, holding various positions, including corporate controller. He has also been CFO for Rabobank International in New York and a senior vice president - corporate development - for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in New York. Mr. Peers is a certified Public and Chartered Accountant and has also been a partner at Ernst & Young - where he spent 18 years working in the Toronto and Chicago offices, mainly with financial institutional clients.
Ron Levi, Chief Operating Officer, joined GFI in 1993 and has been chief operating officer since 2006. He was previously GFI’s managing director – Europe from January 2004. Prior to joining GFI, Mr. Levi was director of fixed income at Garban plc.
Jurgen Breuer, Senior Managing Director – Head of E-Commerce. Mr. Breuer has held this position since October 2007 and is responsible for executing GFI’s global e-commerce strategy, including the continuing development and success of GFI's electronic platforms: CreditMatch® and GFI ForexMatch™. Mr. Breuer joined GFI in January 1998 and has managed the company's European repo and freight derivatives businesses in London and – most recently – its Asian brokerage business. Before joining GFI, Mr. Breuer held trading and management positions with Oppenheim, Société Générale and Citibank.
J. Christopher Giancarlo, Executive Vice President - Corporate Development, is responsible for strategic corporate transactions. Mr. Giancarlo joined GFI in 2001 as part of the acquisition of Fenics, where he structured strategic alliances with major investment banks. Prior to joining Fenics in 2000, Mr. Giancarlo was a corporate partner in the New York law firm, Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner, LLP.
Scott Pintoff, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, joined GFI in 2000. Prior to assuming the duties of General Counsel in April 2002, Mr. Pintoff was our Associate General Counsel. Before joining our company Mr. Pintoff was an associate with the law firm of Dewey Ballantine LLP from 1996 to 2000.
Sheena Griffiths, Global Human Resources Director, joined GFI in 2000. Prior to GFI, Ms. Griffiths was formerly director of human resource, Europe, for Garban - now ICAP. Ms. Griffiths has also worked for NatWest Group (now Royal Bank of Scotland) working in both human resources and elsewhere.
Nick Brown, Managing Director – Head of Financial Product Brokerage, North America, joined GFI in 2003 from Technolia LLC, where he was a managing director. Mr. Brown’s experience in inter-dealer brokerage business includes positions as managing director, North America of Tullett & Tokyo between 1990 and 1996 and president of Harlow Meyer Savage from 1986 and 1989. Mr. Brown is also a director of Jersey Partners – GFI’s largest shareholder,and the Financial Markets Association. Mr. Brown has been a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Foreign Exchange Steering Committee and Wit Capital’s board of directors.
Michael Cosgrove, Managing Director – Head of Energy Product Brokerage, North America. Michael Cosgrove became Head of Energy Product Brokerage, North America for GFI in July 2008. Mr. Cosgrove manages all of GFI’s energy business in North America, including its Amerex and StarSupply divisions. He started his career with Amerex in 1981 as a trainee with the firm’s New Jersey office and quickly excelled as a broker of North American and international crude oil. In 1986, Mr. Cosgrove became a partner in the firm and Managing Director of Amerex’s European operations. In 1989, Mr. Cosgrove founded Amerex Futures Limited, a member of the London Clearing House and International Petroleum Exchange. Since that time, Mr. Cosgrove has focused on developing Amerex businesses worldwide. Working with firms on every continent, he has assisted clients in both emerging and established markets with the development of innovative risk management and trading programs. In 2003, Mr. Cosgrove was named Chief Executive Officer of the Amerex North American Companies. In 2004, Mr. Cosgrove was named to the EnergyRisk Hall of Fame. Since GFI’s acquisition of Amerex in 2006, Mr. Cosgrove served as President of GFI’s Amerex division.
Jim Higgins, Managing Director and Head of North American Credit Brokerage, joined GFI in July 2008. He is a former co-head of global credit trading at Citigroup in New York where he worked for 15 years. Mr Higgins holds BA in Economics from Harvard and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Mark Souffir, Managing Director, GFI Paris, joined GFI at the end of 2005 as managing director international futures and equities and assisted in establishing GFI’s Paris operations. Prior to joining GFI, Mr. Souffir was managing director of Refco’s Paris office. He has also been a manager of various equities, equity derivatives and financial futures products at IFF, a division of AXA.
Julian Swain, Managing Director – Europe, since 2006. Mr. Swain joined GFI in 2001 to head GFI’s European credit products group and oversaw the roll-out of GFI’s CreditMatch® electronic trading platform. Mr. Swain was previously with ICAP where he managed various credit products teams.
Scott Tatham, Managing Director – Head of Asia, is responsible for the day-to-day operations of GFI's Asian brokerage businesses. He joined GFI in 2005 and most recently headed GFI's interest rate swaps business in New York. Mr. Tatham has over 20 years' experience in inter-dealer broking, working in all the world's major financial centres. Prior to joining GFI, Mr. Tatham worked at Harlow and Tullett Prebon, where he brokered and managed fixed income, equity derivatives, credit derivatives and fx derivative products and businesses.