Kelly Lands COO Role at Liquidnet

Industry veteran John Kelly joins trading network as COO, while Lugene Forte joins the firm as head of sales and trading operations in the US.

Liquidnet, the global institutional trading network, has appointed John Kelly as chief operating officer (COO) and member of the leadership team effective immediately. Kelly will be responsible for driving revenue across all of Liquidnet's businesses globally. He will be based in New York reporting directly to Liquidnet's founder and CEO Seth Merrin.

Liquidnet has also named Lugene Forte as head of sales and trading operations in the US; she will have complete oversight of the US equities business, reporting directly to Kelly. Forte will also join the Liquidnet leadership team.

Kelly most recently worked with John Thornton, former president of Goldman Sachs, providing advisory services to private investors and management around the world. Prior to that, he held several senior positions at Société Générale in the US, including head of capital markets, COO of the US investment banking business, and head of portfolio management for SG Americas.

He has also held leadership positions at Rockefeller Family & Associates where he managed private equity investments; Bear Stearns where he was head of Asian fixed-income capital markets; and The First Boston Corporation (now Credit Suisse) where he was a founding member of the Capital Markets Group.