Clear Street Expands Institutional Sales Footprint with Several Senior Hires

Fintech unicorn welcomes experts from Virtu, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Wells Fargo

NEW YORK – September 14, 2022 – Clear Street, a fintech building better access to capital markets, today announced that it has significantly bolstered its institutional sales roster, adding six senior sales traders in New York and Chicago and two equity finance professionals in New York.

The six senior sales traders will be reporting to Joseph Ricciardi, Head of U.S. Sales and Trading, who oversees Clear Street’s U.S. Equities, Sales, and Trading desk. Ricciardi joined Clear Street in June 2019, after more than two decades at Knight Capital and KCG, most recently serving as the firm’s Head of Cash Trading. Since his start in 2019, Ricciardi has grown the Sales & Trading team to more than 20 experienced members. 

Clear Street expanded its institutional sales team with the following industry experts: 

• David Diaz - Equity Sales & Trading
  ‍Diaz joins Clear Street after 13 years as a Managing Director at Virtu Financial. Diaz previously held senior roles at Merrill Lynch.  
• Chris Tierney - Equity Sales & Trading (effective November 1, 2022)
  Tierney has more than two decades of experience at Virtu Financial, most recently serving as Managing Director. 
• Erika Thomas - Equity Sales & Trading
  Thomas joins the team after more than 10 years as Managing Director at Barclays and 12 years as a Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers. Thomas most recently held the position of Managing Director at Cantor Fitzgerald.
• Frank Davis - Equity Sales & Trading
  Davis joins Clear Street with more than two decades of experience in equity sales and trading at Lek Securities Corporation. 
• John Spiegelman - Equity Sales & Trading (effective September 19, 2022)
  Spiegelman has more than two decades of experience at Virtu Financial, most recently serving as a Sales Trader.  
• Louis Natoli II - Equity Sales & Trading
  Natoli joins after 20 years in institutional sales & trading at firms, including Lek Securities Corporation and Joseph N Palma Securities. 

“This expansion represents the next step in establishing Clear Street as a perennial force in the institutional equity arena,” said Ricciardi. “These new hires bring an enormous amount of credibility and knowledge to our already diverse sales team. Erika will be the first of an expanded team in Chicago. This growing footprint, along with our existing office in Dallas, establishes our presence in major regions in the U.S. We look forward to broadening our reach to clients here in the U.S. and internationally, with the goal of doubling the size of our sales force in the next 12 to 18 months.”  

Clear Street has also expanded its equity finance team with the addition of two experienced experts, who will report to Pat Travers, Head of Distribution and Andy Volz, Chief Operating Officer. 

• Bjorn Franson - Equity Finance
  Franson has previously held senior roles at Morgan Stanley, Citi, and BNY Mellon. He most recently served as Director, Prime Brokerage Sales at Mirae Asset Securities. 
• Michael Batanjany - Equity Finance (effective September 26, 2022)‍
  Batanjany joins after 25 years in senior equity finance roles at companies, including UBS, BNP Paribas, and Wells Fargo.

Clear Street recently announced the completion of its $165 million Series B round, accelerating the launch of its platform as well as helping the firm to continue growing its team and resources and forming new partnerships. Clear Street is composed of top talent from some of the most competitive companies on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, and processes an average of $3 billion in trades every day, all on a cloud-native platform.