Anthony Malakian: Three Principals, One Common Response

This month, Waters broke its three-month run of profiling individuals from buy-side firms—although I should note that  Liquidnet, the subject of the cover story this month, caters to the buy side. Next month we’ll be featuring Bank of America’s Catherine Bessant and for July it will be the Canadian National Stock Exchange’s Ian Bandeen and Richard Carleton.

So I felt that now was an appropriate time to look back at the people featured on our last three covers: Alan Goldstein, CIO of BNY Mellon Asset Management; Stephen Temes, founder of Lincoln Capital; and Warren Master, CTO of Rohatyn Group. Each of them has the power to make decisions about the technologies that run their firms, and each one approaches that responsibility in a different way.

One of my favorite questions to ask the person I’m profiling is: “What gets you out of bed in the morning?” The response usually tells me how guarded the person is and how excited they are about tackling technology challenges—or just how jaded they’ve become.

In my case, what motivates me to board the Manhattan-bound L train and head to work in the morning is writing these profiles. While breaking news and piecing together expansive exposés on varying events—as I do for Buy-Side Technology—is important, there’s nothing quite like getting the one-on-one time with these major industry players.

Goldstein, for example, says that having the opportunity to work among the various locations, customers and asset classes is the best part of his job. For Temes, it’s “the rush from making money.” Meanwhile, Master says it’s “watching my baby grow.” I love these three responses because they perfectly illustrate the personalities of these men and the companies they work for.

Strategy-Oriented View
At BNY Mellon, Goldstein heads the technology arm of a global giant. His view of technology tends to be at a much higher strategy-oriented level than most other technologists in our industry. He constantly frets about the global implications of each and every project; while saving the company money is always an objective, it’s not his place to be so blunt.

This brings me to Temes. My editor succinctly captured the essence of Temes with the subhead: “Lincoln Capital’s Stephen Temes tells it like it is.” Temes, who founded Lincoln Capital, was frank—and refreshingly unapologetic—about the importance of making profits through the art of trading. And why shouldn’t he be? He didn’t establish a not-for-profit—he created a hedge fund. He provided a breath of fresh air that only a man in his position at his kind of company could provide.

Warren Master, on the other hand, is the high-ranking nuts-and-bolts guy. Unlike Goldstein—who almost blindly fell into technology after a stint as a paramedic—and Temes, who is a trader through-and-through, Master is the guy who wanted to work with computers as a child and followed that career path from the word go. Yet, as divergent as their answers are to the “What gets you up in the morning?” probe, they are similar with the inverse question: “What keeps you awake at night?”

Temes frets about overstepping his risk parameters and dropping the ball for his clients. Goldstein says it’s the unknown—the thing he couldn’t account for that would blindside his company. For Master, it’s the fear of under-utilizing a good idea or project, which would hinder his firm’s ability to achieve its full potential.

Those three responses may sound different word-for-word, but at a base level the common concern for them is: Don’t let the team down.

It’s funny how fear tends to be a constant, while aspirations are disparate. And in case you’re wondering what my answer to the question about what keeps me awake at night would be, it’s this: “Will I do the subject of the article justice?” I guess we’re all the same, deep down.