Tradeweb hires Macquarie’s European execution services head for Plato venture

Richard Bateson will oversee the development of new cash equities block trading platform launched with Plato Partnership.

Tradeweb has appointed one of Macquarie’s former most senior stock traders to a new role ahead of the launch of its cash equities block trading platform with Plato Partnership.

Richard Bateson has joined as an equities product manager, where will be responsible for overseeing the development of Tradeweb’s new cash equities trading platform which is due to go-live later this year, a spokesperson confirmed.

Before his departure from the Australian bank in September, Bateson was the head of European execution services for more than seven years. He also previously worked as a trader at Numis Securities, and as a trader at JP Morgan focusing on portfolio and centralised execution, index arbitrage and portfolio risk trading.

The new block trading venture will see Tradeweb enter the equities space with Plato Partnership, after traditionally offering similar platforms primarily in fixed income and derivatives.

Lee Olesky, CEO at Tradeweb, described the development of the platform, which is known as eBlock, as being a “significant milestone” for the firm.

“We are excited to extend this highly successful model to cash equities, and to work with Plato to develop new trading mechanisms to more efficiently execute block trades against principal liquidity on a regulated trading venue,” Olesky said.

Tradeweb and Plato Partnership stated they will work closely together to drive the development of the new platform, which will be operated by Tradeweb on its multilateral facility (MTF).

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