John Grimaldi became the latest in a long line of securities lending executives to join a technology company when he resurfaced at RedBlack Software earlier this month. 

The industry veteran, who can trace his securities finance career back to the early 80s, ran the global securities finance operations at SunGard (now FIS) up until early 2016. 

He was named chief operating officer at New Hampshire-based RedBlack earlier this month.

The firm focuses on portfolio management, reporting, rebalancing and trading software for the buy-side.

“There’s a change of guard occurring in the securities finance industry,” Grimaldi told Global Investor/ISF shortly after his move to RedBlack was announced.

“Securities lending and collateral management continues to move towards new solutions, such as CCPs, and is seeing more exchange-like automation.

“That trend will continue, the regulatory environment will move the securities finance business down that road.” 

Grimaldi’s no stranger to technology having had a prominent role at Loanet before it was sold to SunGard back in 2001.  

He then led SunGard’s integration of Astec Analytics in 2007 and sought and signed various strategic partnerships with third party providers of technology assets.

At RedBlack, Grimaldi will manage all aspects of day-to-day operations, including client support, sales, product & financial management, operating policies and procedures. 

The firm already works with more than 100 single and multi-family offices, wealth advisors, brokers, trust companies, RIAS, pension funds and foundations representing more than $200bn in assets under management.

Looking ahead, Grimaldi believes the opportunity for growth is significant. 

“It’s surprising how many buy-side market participants continue to manage models on spreadsheets,” he adds. 

“Excel doesn’t allow RIAs, trust companies, pension funds or asset managers to scale or automate. 

"RedBlack’s tools offer cutting edge solutions to ease and automate pre-trade compliance, rebalancing and trading, order management and post-trade compliance.”

Partnerships built up with technology vendors, custodians and brokers have made the implementation of RedBlack’s platform more efficient.

Grimaldi was familiar with the business prior to joining given RedBlack’s certification with the SunGard Global Network (SGN) allowing clients to connect to over 450 sell-side firms. 

“Doing more with less has become the big mantra across the finance industry,” he said. 

“RedBlack is a dynamic, rapidly growing organization driven by a commitment to deliver solutions customized to each client’s unique workflow and portfolio management requirements.”

For now, Grimaldi has no immediate plans to extend RedBlack’s reach into securities finance, but says he is excited about the opportunity to use his operational expertise to help expand the firm’s capabilities and broaden the technology to adjacent markets.