Talos, the provider of institutional digital assets technology and data for trading and portfolio management, announced the appointment of Drew Forman as SVP and Head of Strategy. In this executive role, Forman will spearhead various companywide initiatives such as ongoing market expansion, product development and corporate matters as Talos strengthen its position at the center of the institutional digital assets ecosystem.
As Head of Cowen Digital, Forman had reportedly helped with launching a so-called full-service, institutional digital assets platform that offered trade execution, custody via partners, and liquidity solutions for institutions entering the crypto-assets market.
He brings to Talos experience in derivatives trading, having been responsible for leading Cowen’s equity derivatives desk, “co-led the trading desk at Macro Risk Advisors, and held senior derivatives trading roles at Nomura and J.P. Morgan.”
Recently, at Hudson Bay Capital, he had been primarily focused on the portfolio management as well as trading of equity volatility strategies, “demonstrating his analytical rigor in traditional finance. ”
Anton Katz, CEO and Co-Founder of Talos said that they have seen significant growth in traditional institutions entering digital assets, and with that comes a tremendous “opportunity for Talos to support their sophisticated workflows.”
Drew’s experience in building businesses across traditional and digital finance reportedly makes him well-positioned to help “chart Talos’s next phase of growth.”
Forman will report directly to CEO Anton Katz, “overseeing business strategy, exploring inorganic growth and partnership opportunities, and helping to define the firm’s long-term positioning across both digital and traditional asset markets.”
His mandate includes driving alignment “across the organization and ensuring that Talos’s platform continues to be the trusted infrastructure layer for financial institutions.”
Forman’s appointment reflects Talos’s momentum and the “broader wave of institutional engagement in digital assets.”
During the past year, Talos has onboarded as clients multiple asset managers representing around $21 trillion in assets under management, as well as hedge funds collectively managing more than $100 billion in AUM. In addition to this, several retail brokers have reportedly adopted Talos’s technology, “enabling over 100 million end users to trade digital assets.”
Some of the key growth milestones include the integration of the Talos order and execution management system with BlackRock’s Aladdin investment platform, and “the acquisitions of digital assets firms: data provider Coin Metrics, risk management platform Cloudwall, institutional DeFi technology provider Skolem, and portfolio engineering platform D3X Systems.”
These moves now aim to advance Talos’s commitment to delivering an institutional-grade platform that supports “the full lifecycle of digital asset investment.”
As covered, Talos explains that it offers “institutional-grade” tech and data that supports the digital asset investment lifecycle. This includes liquidity sourcing, price discovery, trading, settlement and portfolio management.
Engineered by a team with experience building institutional trading, portfolio and data systems, the Talos platform links up institutions to various providers in the digital asset ecosystem – exchanges, OTC desks, prime brokers, lenders, custodians – via a common interface.