MarketAxess Holdings Inc., the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, and the provider of market data and post-trade services for the global fixed-income markets, today announced the appointment of Michael Baker as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), effective as of today.

In his role, Mr. Baker will have global responsibility for all software development, which will include strategy, architecture, development and deployment of our trading system, with a particular focus on MarketAxess’ next-generation technology solutions. This includes continuing to build innovative trading solutions, as well as supporting the firm’s internal architecture. Mr. Baker will report to Nick Themelis, Chief Information Officer.

“Mike’s experience at both investor and market-making firms make him ideally suited to help support our global institutional buy- and sell-side client base,” said Nick Themelis. “His knowledge gained from his more recent work on cloud computing will be a valuable contribution to MarketAxess’ development process.”

Mr. Baker joins MarketAxess from Fidelity Investments, where he served as the Head of Enterprise Cloud Computing. He was responsible for Fidelity’s digital and agile transformation to the cloud, allowing the firm to leverage the cloud for innovation, increase velocity and reduce costs. Mr. Baker also supported the development of cloud security, governance and operations, delivering over one hundred business applications across all of Fidelity’s business units.

“I’m thrilled to be joining a firm with such a solid track record of technological innovation,” noted Mr. Baker. “MarketAxess is at the meeting point of the entire fixed income market, supporting the needs of all participants across the trading lifecycle. The technology that MarketAxess is developing is driving greater efficiency and automation in fixed income and I’m looking forward to being a part of that evolution.”

Prior to Fidelity, Mr. Baker was the Managing Director, Head of High Frequency Trading and Asset Management Infrastructure and Engineering for Citadel Investment Group. While at Citadel, he led the Engineering Department, responsible for assessing and deploying new technology, ultimately helping the firm integrate industry recognized high-frequency market-making technology. He began his career with Salomon Brothers in New York as a Software Engineer.