Richard Prager, a former senior managing director at BlackRock, has been elected to the board of directors at MarketAxess, the firm announced on Wednesday.
Prager served on BlackRock's executive committee and most recently headed the company’s global trading, liquidity and securities lending teams and played a leadership role in managing BlackRock’s global investment platform for both active portfolios and the iShares ETF business. He retired on July 1.
“Richie is well known for his industry leadership in developing and supporting innovative liquidity solutions in the global fixed income markets,” said Rick McVey, MarketAxess Chairman and CEO. “Few people in our industry have his breadth of knowledge and experience in the entire front to back trading lifecycle. He is passionate about technology solutions to improve efficiency in fixed income trading and settlements. Our company will benefit greatly from his perspective and expertise as we continue to invest in the next generation of electronic trading capabilities and expand our global presence.”
Before joining BlackRock in 2009, he worked for Bank of America in several senior management roles.
“MarketAxess has been an important catalyst in the accelerating transformation of global fixed income markets,” Prager said. “Joining Rick and the rest of the MarketAxess board is an exciting opportunity to continue my engagement in addressing the ways that technology can strengthen market structure, delivering substantial value to market participants through increased efficiency and access to liquidity.”
Almost $6 billion of municipal debt traded on MarketAxess in 2018, a 47% increase from 2017, according to a recent statement from a firm spokesperson.
MarketAxess operates an institutional electronic trading platform delivering liquidity opportunities and execution quality across global fixed-income markets. The firm is headquartered in New York City and has offices in London, Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, São Paulo, Hong Kong and Singapore.
