Aqua, an electronic equities trading platform that will be launched later this year by eSpeed, has appointed John Silvestri as senior vice president with responsibilities for sales, brokerage operations and business development.
Silvestri was formerly vice president in charge of sales and operational support for eSpeed Equities, a direct access provider operated jointly by Cantor and eSpeed.
Prior to this Silvestri held positions as an equity proprietary trader at NexTrade and Barkley Trading. He began his Wall Street career in a business development capacity at MarketXT.
In his new role Silvestri will report to global head of sales Andrew Fishkind, who joined the company in February this year.
Last month Brian Weston, who was senior vice president of new markets development at eSpeed, joined Aqua as chief technology officer (CTO).
Both eSpeed and Cantor Fitzgerald are contributing financial, professional and technology assets to Aqua, which is headed by Kevin Foley, who relinquished his role as president of eSpeed to become president and CEO of Aqua.
Commenting on Silvestri's appointment, Foley says: "John's valuable expertise in business and product development, his broad project management abilities, and his strong analytical skills will be vital to Aqua as we focus on building block liquidity."