Zeltwanger Heads Fimat USA ; UBS CIO Takes Leave, New Head Named ; Brinker Capital Hires Senior Mana

Zeltwanger Heads Fimat USA
The Fimat Group, a global-brokerage firm specializing in the derivatives and securities markets, has named Cynthia Zeltwanger as president and chief executive officer of Fimat USA.

Zeltwanger, who assumed the title in the beginning of March, says that her responsibilities are to further develop Fimat USA's business while managing all American operations. "The goal is to continue to grow the business in areas where we need to compliment our offering," she explains.

Her initiatives include increasing Fimat's fixed-income business and energy offerings, as well as focusing on the company's newly established FX group and promoting Fimat's recently added equity-options and equity-brokering desk.

Zeltwanger also stresses the importance of using technology to enhance Fimat's clients' experiences, as well as to gain efficiency. According to Zeltwanger, Fimat is in the process of replacing a home-grown electronic-derivatives exchange with a new electronic-trading platform using software from NYFIX, and plans to pursue aggregation of current systems. "We want to marry the systems so that we can provide our clients with access to the exchange-traded and the cash instruments all under one umbrella," she explains.

Zeltwanger expects the year to hold its share of challenges, she says, and recognizes that Fimat must be prepared. "We're all dealing with an uncertain world right now," she says. - JP

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UBS CIO Takes Leave, New Head Named
UBS Warburg's chief information officer, Pat O'Donnell, is taking a three month leave of absence, according to a source who received an internal memo from the firm. Philip Freeborn, formerly deputy head of IT, will relocate from the firm's London office to Stamford, Conn., to replace him. Freeborn's new title will be global head of IT.

The memo said O'Donnell was taking the leave to spend time with his family and is planning to return to UBS but has not decided in what capacity.

Freeborn will report to Gary Bullock, head of infrastructure and logistics. Bullock was promoted to this post in February. Previously global head of operations, he now has responsibility for both operations and information technology. Requests for an interview with Bullock, via a spokeswoman, were denied. - KM

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Brinker Capital Hires Senior Manager
Brinker Capital, the Pennsylvania-based investment firm specializing in consulting, managed accounts and mutual-fund services, has signed on Lee Dolan as a principal.

Brinker will look to Dolan to increase the firm's assets under management (currently $3 billion), as well as formulate increased quality investor, client and vendor relationships.

"Investment advisers are confused, frustrated and angry in this difficult market and what they want is strategic partners that they can count on," Dolan explains.

Dolan also says that he plans to develop more strategic partnerships with technology vendors and notes that partnerships are in the works with vendors such as Foliofn for multiple-style account management, eMoney Advisor for data aggregation and Business Technology Alliance for an automated workflow for separate accounts.

"We want best-of-breed products, and we're constantly evaluating new opportunities and new partnerships to enhance our service to our customers," he says.

Dolan says that he credits his previous experience at SEI Investments, a Pennsylvania-based investment-solution outsourcer, for helping provide him with experience in the mutual-fund-wrap business, and looks forward to bringing that experience to Brinker.

"I think that all of the pieces are here at Brinker so the challenges are just reassembling some of those pieces," he says. -JP

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People On The Move
- John Palazzo joins Pulse Trading, a Boston-based ECN, as Executive Vice President and head of the New York office.

- Michael O'Conor is elected as Chairman of FIX Protocol Limited.

- Jack Mahoney is named Director of Research and Marketing for TradeWeb.

- Philip Fasano, previously Senior Vice President and Global Head of Technology for Investor Services at JPMorgan, moves to Capital One as the Senior Vice President of Information Technology.

- Nigel Cheetham joins investment manager Prime Advisors as the Senior Vice President of Technology. - JP