AFTAs 2014: Best Technology Executive, Sell Side—Tim Wood, FBR & Co.

Wood, this year’s recipient of the award for best technology executive on the sell side, was able to cut the fat while keeping the machine running. The results have been impressive: FBR reported after-tax earnings of $92.9 million last year, up from $29.7 million in 2012 and way up from a loss of $49.6 million in 2011. Headcount is up to nearly 300, after falling to 247 in 2012. Wood, in the May 2014 issue of Waters, told reporter Jake Thomases that the firm had found its level and wasn’t looking to grow to its pre-crisis size.

“My job is no longer whether I can build the best system possible,” Wood said. “It’s can I deliver the most value with the least possible resources and the least possible cost?”

Wood is most proud of the IT team that stayed beside him during those lean years. FBR’s technology team dropped from over 80 to a paltry 15, plus three contractors; his budget was cut by 65 percent. Loyalty from those who survived the cuts has been strong, as no technologist has been there for fewer than four years.

“Once you deliver for him and he sees your capability, he rewards you with trust and responsibility,” Vikas Chopra, Wood’s head of enterprise solutions, told Waters in May. “But there have been a lot of people who he’s felt were not up to snuff and he didn’t trust how they did things or what they delivered.”

Wood, who is married with eight kids, was a triple major at Duke University, with degrees in physics, economics, and French. Even as FBR returns to health, Wood is still making cuts, but now it is because he’s looking to find more efficiencies rather than simply keep the lights on. Recently, he renegotiated several vendor contracts, chopped FBR’s Microsoft contract in half, significantly cut its market data expenses, shrunk its server footprint from 500 to 150, and is reducing its racks from 17 down to six.

Wood recently renegotiated several vendor contracts, chopped FBR’s Microsoft contract in half, significantly cut its market data expenses, shrunk its server footprint from 500 to 150, and is reducing its racks from 17 down to six.

Wood is a cutting machine, and he’s this year’s top CIO on the sell side.