Gain Capital's Haines Joins Scivantage as CIO

After nearly a decade helping turn foreign exchange (FX) trading services provider Gain Capital Group from a startup to a publicly listed company, Andrew Haines has moved on to web-based front- and middle-office technology solutions vendor Scivantage, where he will take over as CIO.

Haines tells Buy-Side Technology that he was looking for a new challenge after serving for seven years at Gain, where he was CIO. The company floated its IPO in 2010, after which he says, "the needs of the organization changed," and he was looking to join a company that was similar to Gain a few years ago, in that it was aiming for aggressive growth.

Haines already had a working relationship with Scivantage's CEO, Adnane Charchour, because Gain had been working with Scivantage for the past two years. The two met over lunch and Haines found they had similar views on technology and how to run a business.

"I think Scivantage is at an exciting stage of accelerated growth and I'm looking forward to getting back into that mode where I can help grow the company in a similar way as I did at Gain," he says.

Haines, who got his start in financial services at Salomon Smith Barney and then at Merrill Lynch from 1989 to 2000, will be responsible for all aspects of technology development, both on the hardware and software sides of the business. He has been charged with streamlining the product development and delivery models to help the vendor achieve growth efficiently and without straining budgets.

"I pride myself on being very cost-effective in my solutions and knowing where we can cut corners without introducing risk," he says.

Under Haines, Jersey City-based Scivantage will make a push into the mobile space as it will initially target tablets and smartphones for the wealth management industry, while trying to make its current offerings "more flexible and configurable" to meet the individual needs of Scivantage's clients.

"When a firm is growing, it's easy to please the customer but lose sight of efficiencies," he says. "So I think the balance that we're looking to find here is where we can keep our clients delighted with our products, but also offer that service quickly and efficiently."