Witad Awards 2022: Vendor professional of the year (trading and risk)—Ming Yang, Tradeweb

Soon after graduating from Yale University with a master’s in computer science in 1995, Ming Yang landed a job at Lehman Brothers. While at the now defunct investment bank, she worked with a startup that was creating an online multi-dealer network for US Treasuries called Tradeweb. She worked closely with the team at Tradeweb to integrate Lehman’s system with Tradeweb’s. Little did she know at the time that it would be Tradeweb, and not Lehman, that would define her career.

At the start of 2005, Yang joined the now established fixed-income marketplace operator. Now, 17 years later, she says what’s kept her at the company is the people—some of the same people she enjoyed working with at Lehman—and the fact that she’s been able to be challenged and grow.

“The work I’ve been given throughout the years is ever-evolving and changing, so I had many opportunities to learn the business as well as the technology,” she says. “I’m never short of opportunities to challenge myself on these various projects.”

The latest opportunity presented itself when Yang, who made her mark on the dealer technology team, was asked in mid-2020 to take over the trading team as managing director of institutional fixed-income technology.

“Our trading system is very complex and distributed. I took the time to learn from the former team lead about the architecture of the system, and more importantly, what decisions were made along the way to make the system what it is today,” she says. “I think it was key for me to learn from the former team lead and team about what was good about the system, and what still needed improvement.”

Her list of projects and accomplishments while on the dealer side is impressively long—hence the faith put in her to jump over to the trading team. In her current role, Yang and her team have worked to improve Tradeweb’s Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool, which allows Tradeweb clients to automate and streamline the trading process, as well as API trading support for both buy-side clients and dealers. Yang also focuses her efforts on integrating key functionalities to support the business and its products: This includes providing support for various trading protocols such as request-for-quote (RFQ) and firm stream execution for all product marketplaces on Tradeweb’s IFI platform.

“What I learned is that I should respect the legacy, but I should not be afraid to change it to make it better,” she says. “It’s a big challenge, but also a big opportunity.”