Connamara Systems, an exchange solutions provider and custom software developer for the capital markets, announced today the formation of an advisory board, a group of trusted advisors consisting of Peter Willmott, Travis Schwab, and Maureen Downs. The advisory board will advise Connamara on a wide range of issues including growth strategies, talent acquisition/retention, business structure, and governance.
“As we look to increase the trajectory of our company, we believe this is an opportune time to form an advisory board to counsel us as we scale our business,” said Jim Downs, CEO and founder of Connamara. “With Peter, Travis, and Maureen, we feel we’ve assembled an incredibly strong initial board. They offer a wealth of expertise in finance, technology, regulation, and global capital markets. They will be invaluable in ensuring Connamara stays at the leading edge of our industry.”
Peter S. Willmott has enjoyed a storied career in corporate America. He joined Federal Express as chief financial officer in 1973, shortly after FedEx made its first package deliveries. In 1980, he assumed the role of president and chief operating officer, as the company grew to $1 billion in annual revenue. Following his successful leadership of FedEx, he also served as chairman, president, and CEO of Carson Pirie Scott, president and CEO of Zenith Electronics, and chairman and CEO of Willmott Services, Inc., Mr. Willmott holds a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College and an MBA from Harvard University.
Travis Schwab has worked across a diverse set of companies and asset classes in front-, middle-, and back-office roles. Currently the CEO of Eventus Systems, Inc., a regulatory technology software firm, he has a broad background working in product sales in the financial services industry at firms such as Trading Technologies and Calyon Financial (now Société Générale). Mr. Schwab holds a Bachelor of Finance from Loyola University Chicago.
Maureen Downs is a respected industry veteran with over 35 years of experience in derivative financial instruments, holding executive roles at brokerages, trading firms, regulatory bodies, and trade associations. She is presently CEO of MC Downs & Co, a business advisory firm, vice chair of the National Futures Association and chair of FIA Tech. She holds a Bachelor of Business in Finance from the University of Notre Dame, and a Juris Doctor from Northwestern University Law School.
“Connamara has been a leader in the exchange technology space for over two decades now, and the company continues to be a shining example in the Chicago fintech landscape,” said Peter Willmott. “I’m honored to be a part of their team and look forward to helping them continue to grow.”
Connamara launched its new exchange platform, EP3, in March of this year, providing flexible, scalable, and self-healing matching engine technology for exchanges. The company was recently retained to build a platform for MaterialsXchange, a startup creating a digital marketplace for raw materials industries.
About Connamara Systems, LLC
For over 21 years, Connamara has been fulfilling the business needs of capital markets clients by combining certainty of delivery with the highest possible quality. With unparalleled responsiveness to client needs, Connamara has engineered matching engines, trading platforms, risk systems, execution and order management systems, trading user interfaces and dashboards for exchanges, brokerages, fund managers, market makers, and proprietary traders. Its clients include innovative new marketplaces as well as leading global exchanges who rely on Connamara for the breadth of its domain knowledge and engineering expertise in market structure, trading, and system design. Connamara’s latest version of its platform, EP3, was released in February 2019. Built from the ground up utilizing Connamara’s best practices for design, testing, configuration, and deployment, EP3 offers extraordinary speed, resiliency, scalability, and self-healing.
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