GFT, the leading provider of business, design and technology consulting to the financial services community, has appointed David Collins as Head of Financial Services across the GFT Atlantic Region, a senior hire that marks a key milestone in GFT’s strategy to service clients in the UK and North America.

David brings with him a wealth of experience across financial services and technology. He joins from Sapient where he was heavily involved in working to reshape and refocus its UK business consulting organisation. Before this, he held the role of CEO of SDX Trading and chief marketing officer at SuperDerivatives. In this role, David was responsible for the innovation of new products in trade execution and market data, the evolution of existing products and the expansion into new markets. His experience also spans roles as a partner at Capco and a derivatives trader at BNP Paribas, DLJ and Standard Bank.

In his new role, David will be responsible for all Financial Services Client Units in the GFT Atlantic Region (UK, US and Canada), ranging from sales right through to delivery. He will be actively involved in engaging with new customers and extending existing customer relationships further, in order to continue to serve clients in the best way possible, whilst expanding the Atlantic business.

David has had a particular interest in FinTech since being involved in the first professional grade derivatives platform at SuperDerivatives. This interest will form a key part of his role as GFT continues to evolve its digital offering to new, and existing clients. Spearheading upcoming new projects in the FinTech space, he will play a vital role in ensuring that GFT is able to offer a practical business application for new technologies.

David Collins, Head of Financial Services at GFT commented: “I am excited to join the global management team at GFT where I look forward to continuing growing and pushing the Financial Services business forward across the Atlantic region. Having recently led a project to change and develop the EMEA division of Sapient, I am eager to bring the skills that I have gained, and the experiences that I encountered in this process, to continue GFT’s progression as the largest scale consultancy focused on financial services.”

Gareth Richardson, Managing Director at GFT commented: “We are thrilled to have David on board and we are eager to utilise his broad range of skills, gained from his wide experience in the financial services sector. Having played a key role in the sale of SuperDerivatives to ICE, it is clear that David’s drive will perfectly complement our Atlantic Management team, and I am sure he will be a great asset to GFT.”