JERSEY CITY, N.J., May 27, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Direct Edge ECN announced that it has appointed Eric Hess as its General Counsel. Mr. Hess will assume his duties at Direct Edge on June 23, 2008.
Mr. Hess will have responsibility for overseeing all legal and regulatory affairs of the company, including leading efforts in connection with Direct Edge's application for two exchange licenses with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Hess has a great deal of experience liaising with financial industry regulators, both at his previous position as Senior Vice President, Legal Equities, for Lehman Brothers and during his tenure with SunGard Data Systems, part of which was spent in the role of Chief Legal Officer for The BRUT ECN. Mr. Hess has also worked as Legal Head of Transactional Services for Bloomberg, L.P. and as an associate for the law firm of Wachtel & Masyr. Mr. Hess graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton and earned his law degree from the Fordham University School of Law.
"Eric is a distinguished attorney who offers a unique combination of regulatory expertise and business acumen," said William O'Brien, Chief Executive Officer of Direct Edge ECN. "We are delighted to have him joining the Direct Edge executive team, and having his contributions as we continue to grow and innovate as a major market center."
About Direct Edge ECN
Direct Edge ECN offers the next generation of displayed markets. Through multiple platforms and unique order types, Direct Edge matches complementary forms of liquidity based on sensitivity to transaction cost, fill rate, fill speed, and contra-side sophistication while maintaining high execution quality and low latencies. Direct Edge is owned by a consortium that includes Knight Capital Group, Citadel Derivatives Group LLC, and The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Direct Edge's average daily touched volume in April 2008 was over 570 million shares. More information about Direct Edge is available at http://www.directedge.com. Everybody Needs Some Edge.
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