A Look at this Year's BST European Summit

Sadly, I was unable to make it to this year's BST European Summit. Fortunately for this publication, though, it was expertly covered by my London-based colleague, James Rundle. So before we head into the long weekend, here are some of the topics that were discussed.

● Man Group's global head of technology, Mike Wright, delivered the keynote address at this year's event. He made the case the roles of chief information officer and chief data officer should be the same, saying: "It's interesting that some organizations are hiring or forming chief data officer roles. To me, that's unfortunate─the CIO should absolutely be the CDO as well."

The CTOs of Ignis Asset Management and BlueBay Asset Management agreed with Wright's sentiments.

● Do smaller buy-side firms have an advantage over larger ones when it comes to single platforms that support cross-asset trading operations? Panelists discuss.

● CTOs discuss the need for data centralization in order to meet new regulatory requirements.

● Jon Rushman, who is a professor at Warwick Business School and who worked at Barclays Global Investors (BGI) and at BlackRock, discusses how BGI built its Investment Book of Record (IBOR). He also describes its shortcomings, including how it was slow to react to new market innovations.

Lots of good stuff there with high-level tech heads, and we hope that you find the information provided valuable.

Finally, being that Monday is Memorial Day, a special thank you to all the men and women who gave their lives in defense of their country, and a thank you to all those who served, past and present, including my dad, Corporal Laurence Malakian, US Marine Corps. Happy Memorial Day.

(On a side note, some of you old-timers might even know my dad, who is now happily retired, as he helped build data centers for Equitable Life (Equicore), Cigna and Avon.)