Waters Wavelength Podcast Episode 69: AQR's CTO, Neal Pawar, on Engineers & Open Source
Neal Pawar, AQR's CTO, joins Dan and Anthony to talk about attracting talent, the future of open source, and his love of Liverpool football club.
This week on the podcast, Anthony is once again joined by Dan (last time…at least for a while!) to welcome this week’s guest: Neal Pawar, AQR Capital Management’s chief technology officer. AQR, which manages $187.6 billion as of March 31, 2017, is in the midst of a major buildout, upgrading different parts of its infrastructure, front to back, as the firm looks to continue its growth. To answer these enhancements, the need for talent has become increasingly important. Here are topics Pawar hit on during his time with Waters:
(1:45) Neal starts off looking at the fight for talent at colleges in the Northeast.
(3:45) A look at how fintechs are disrupting the finance space.
(6:20) What he looks for when hiring an engineer/programmer.
(9:35) Programming languages they’re most interested in (Python, Pandas, Scala).
(11:05) Ways to keep talented, experienced technologists.
(13:45) The impact and growth of open-source applications.
(14:55) The ethos of contributing back into open-source projects.
(17:25) The future of open-source and how to develop a legal/compliance framework.
(19:45) Why AQR has its engineers sitting side-by-side with the research department.
(26:35) Lessons learned as AQR has grown in size.
(28:00) To wrap things up, Neal, Dan and Anthony talk about soccer (Neal is a huge Liverpool supporter) and how they think the English Premier League will shape out (Anthony gives a stupid prediction about Manchester United).
If you have a SoundCloud account, be sure to subscribe to our page. You can find our account here.
We are also on iTunes. Search "WatersTechnology" in the iTunes store to find us and subscribe, or click here.
[Note: Some versions of the Chrome browser will not allow you to skip ahead; consider using a different browser.]
Links to articles discussed:
Pawar to the People: A profile of AQR's Neal Pawar
Contact Info
As is the case with everything we do, we'd love to get some feedback from our listeners. Feel free to reach out to Anthony or Dan via Twitter or email.
Anthony: @a_malakian; Anthony.Malakian@incisivemedia.com
Dan: @dandefrancesco; Dan.DeFrancesco@incisivemedia.com
Past 10 episodes:
Episode 59: Gabriel Woo, VP of Innovation at RBC
Episode 60: Bill Murphy, Blackstone CTO
Episode 61: Automating Processes
Episode 62: Shadow IT, CFTC's Giancarlo at FIA Boca
Episode 63: Acquisition Analysis, Rise of Data Spend
Episode 64: Open Source, Cyber, AI - A NATAS Recap
Episode 65: Public Cloud Providers Battle for Dominance, The Rise of Artificial Intelligence
Further reading
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: https://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (point 2.4), printing is limited to a single copy.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (clause 2.4), an Authorised User may only make one copy of the materials for their own personal use. You must also comply with the restrictions in clause 2.5.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Regulation
Paxos wins temporary approval for blockchain clearing push
Blockchain infrastructure company will have a period of 18 months to “ramp up” readiness for operations, per the SEC’s approval letter.
Is a 2027 T+1 move too soon for Hong Kong?
The Waters Wrap: Wei-Shen examines HKEx’s discussion paper on moving to T+1 in Q4 2027. A move so soon has its benefits but still requires careful consideration, she says.
EU AI Act leaves agents in regulatory limbo
A new paper published by AI ethicists draws attention to a hole in the EU AI Act surrounding high-risk agentic systems.
AI governance rules coming soon, says CFTC chair
Selig doesn’t want to stifle innovation, but says trading or advice algos will need guardrails.
Hitting the Great Wall: Details scarce on China’s Xinchuang initiative
In a quest to learn more about China’s Xinchuang initiative, Wei-Shen finds trying to get information feels like running into a wall over and over again.
24X says requested SIP exemption won’t break the market
In a new letter to the SEC, the startup exchange says data infrastructure that operates like the SIP is available as it looks to launch overnight trading this summer.
How banks are utilizing new AI forms in their KYC process
Execs from JP Morgan, ING, and Standard Chartered explain how they are looking to use agentic AI to streamline KYC workflows.
T+1 in Asia-Pacific: Preparing post-trade operations for what’s ahead
There are benefits of Asia-Pacific markets moving to T+1, but there are unique complexities to tackle, says DTCC’s Val Wotton.
