LDX unit hires Peer to replace Angelo as CEO

The London Derivatives Exchange has said it will hire tech entrepreneur Karim Peer as the new chief of its consultancy arm, replacing long-standing chief VJ Angelo who is becoming chair of the division.

Peer, who has held various CEO roles in a 30 year tech career, is set to become chief executive of LDXA, the consultancy, structuring and private placement arm of LDX Group, “in early 2020”, according to a statement issued by the firm late on Monday.

VJ Angelo, currently CEO of  both LDXA and LDX Group (LDXG), said: “I am confident that he [Karim] will develop LDXA to ensure a successful placement and launch of all of our Digital Security Offerings on the LDX platform.

“We believe Karim's experience and adoption of this early method of fund-raising with his longer-term goals in the use of Digital Securities, demonstrate his wider spread faith in the new technologies and their opportunities,” Angelo added.

Peer will replace Angelo who founded LDX in late 2016 from GMEX, the UK-based exchange where he was the president and a managing director of its Global Markets Group. Angelo is set to become chairman of LDXA and will remain chief executive of LDX Group.

Peer has extensive experience. He has worked in various roles over recent years such as the chief executive of Various World Tech, a gambling software firm, as director at private equity firm ClearLakeBlue, and an adviser to CurtainCall, a theatre tech start-up.

Previously, Peer was an interim chief executive officer at Hampton Mortgage Servicing, a real estate debt firm, chief exec of Balmoral Financial, a financial wellbeing company, and chief of Helveta, a supply chain management software vendor.

Before that, Peer was non-executive chairman of SOFGEN, the banking technology firm, and a managing director at OpenBet Retail, the gambling tech provider.

Peer was also the chief executive of Financial Objects, the banking software supplier, for almost 12 years after stints at Kindle Banking Systems and Unisys.

LDX said in March it was expanding its regulated derivatives trading platform to embrace digital assets such as crypto-based exchange-traded funds and derivatives to trade alongside traditional derivatives contracts.

Angelo said in February that security token offerings (STOs) are becoming more attractive as an alternative to traditional sources of finance.