Knight Appoints Three Executives to Board

Knight Capital Group has appointed Martin Brand, Matthew Nimetz, and Fred Tomczyk to its board of directors, effective yesterday.

The additions, which bring the number of directors to 10, come after Knight's brush with disaster earlier this month when the market maker lost $440 million in 45 minutes on an algorithmic program onboarding error.

Brand is a managing director at private equity company Blackstone Group; Nimetz, a lawyer and former diplomat, is advisory director at global growth equity firm General Atlantic; Tomczyk is president and CEO of retail brokerage TD Ameritrade, which was one of Knight's biggest clients before the trading glitch and purchased $40 million in convertible stock as part of the rescue plan for Knight. Meanwhile Blackstone and Getco LLC, backed by General Atlantic, each purchased $87 million.

"Knight is pleased to add individuals with such deep and varied expertise to the Board of Directors. Martin, Matt and Fred understand the simple yet powerful draw of Knight's deep liquidity, high-quality trade executions and low execution costs. We look forward to sharpening Knight's competitive strengths to deliver on behalf of clients and shareholders with added insights from our new directors and the experience of the full board," says Tom Joyce, chairman and CEO at Knight Capital Group.