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Dirks Leaves DTCC; PRMIA Names New Director; BNY Brokerage Hires Viani; People on the Move

Dirks retires from DTCC, PRIMA names new director, BNY Brokerage hires head of OTC trading desk

Dirks Leaves DTCC

Industry veteran Dennis Dirks has recently retired from his post as chief operating officer of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. Dirks has also stepped down from his other positions, including member of the DTCC's Board of Directors, president of The Depository Trust Company, National Securities Clearing Corporation and chief executive officer of the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation. According to a DTCC spokesman, Dirks is retiring to pursue personal interests including traveling and spending more time with his family. All of Dirks' positions will be assumed by the DTCC's managing director for technology, strategy and product development, Donald Donahue.

Dirks has been with the DTC for over 31 years, where he began as a systems analyst. Following various senior operations positions, Dirks was named chief operating officer for the DTCC in 1999, when the industry integrated the DTC and NSCC.

John Panchery, managing director of systems and technology at the Securities Industry Association, who has worked with Dirks on projects including Y2K compliance and straight-through processing, says that Dirks' integrity and industry wisdom will be missed. "Dennis was a straight shooter; he gave his honest opinions on topics," Panchery says. "He facilitated closure on issues, making a commitment on the spot and making sure it would get done."

Donahue, Dirk's replacement, has been with the DTCC for 17 years in various capacities, including product development, technology and business-continuity efforts, as well as strategic assessment and initiation of the DTCC's new business directions. Dirks was unavailable for comment.

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PRMIA Names New Director

Scott Schleifer has joined the Professional Risk Managers' International Association in a newly created position, Director of Professional Development. The non-profit association, which represents risk professionals worldwide, hopes that Schleifer's hiring will help to advance professional-development programs and encourage greater exposure of risk issues.

"Risk management, in terms of a profession, is coming about because we've seen trading losses and other events occur that wouldn't have happened if firms had a risk-management program in place," explains David Koenig, who chairs PRMIA's board of directors. "Our goal is to increase the knowledge and confidence that people have in their risk-management programs through education and setting standards."

Koenig says that one of the Schleifer's initiatives will be to continue to develop the Professional Risk Manager program, which is a global-certification and professional-development tool. The program, which currently consists of four basic exams, can be used to measure the knowledge of a potential risk-management hire, or enhance the skills of an already existing risk manager. In addition, different segments of the test can be administered to others that work in coordination with risk managers, such as traders or chief officers.

Once Schleifer has settled into his position, the association will offer customized versions of the exam to financial institutions, in order to accommodate for individual firms' risk-evaluation needs, says Koenig.

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BNY Brokerage Hires Viani

Craig Viani has joined BNY Brokerage as a senior vice president to head up the firm's over-the-counter trading desk. In this newly created role, Viani will oversee the OTC business, which BNY Brokerage established in March. Carey Pack, president of BNY Brokerage, says the new line of business will provide execution management, with access to major points of liquidity for OTC issues across electronic-communications networks and market makers.

Pack says that one of Viani's primary responsibilities will be to utilize technology to advance the OTC business. "We really want to build out the value proposition for the investment manager," he explains. "One of our strategic initiatives is to push out all of our trading tools and capabilities so that money managers can do business with us across a wide range of options."

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People on the Move

- Robert Greifeld, formerly executive vice president at SunGard Data Systems, is named as Nasdaq's president and chief executive officer to replace a retiring Hardwick Simmons.

- Gordon Henderson joins Foliofn Institutional as president. Henderson served as Cheif Executive Officer of Tradinglinx, until the trade-matching utility shuttered its doors.

- Michael G. McErlean, previously Global Co-Head of Futures Services at Goldman Sachs, is named to Eurex's U.S. Management team.

- Fritz McCormick has left Celent Communications to join Financial Technologies International.

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