All-to-all marketplace for illiquid US Treasuries OpenDoor Securities has named Marie Patton as Chief Administrative Officer and Co-Head of Sales, and Lauren McFall Gardner as Managing Director and Co-Head of Sales. In addition to her collaboration with McFall Gardner spearheading the sales and marketing functions of the Company, Patton will also focus on optimizing day-to-day operations for the CEO and coordination among all internal department heads as CAO. Both will report directly to CEO, President and Co-Founder Susan Estes.
Before joining OpenDoor, Patton spent nearly 40 years at ICAP in eCommerce leadership roles ranging from Business and Product Development in APAC to Business Development Manager of Electronic Markets in the US. She also spent seven years as an ASIFMA Board Member in Hong Kong, representing ICAP for the regional association.
“US Treasury markets have undergone quite a shift in recent years and OpenDoor is at the center of the continued evolution of these markets. I am excited by the opportunity to work with the innovative team at OpenDoor capitalizing on my product knowledge, passion and expertise in electronic markets,” said Patton.
Prior to joining OpenDoor, McFall Gardner spent two and a half years as the Director of West Coast Sales for NEX, overseeing regional sales for its FX execution and netting platform and NEX’s Treasury platform (formerly EBS BrokerTec). Before that, she spent three years as Chief Sales and Marketing Officer and Head of European Sales for interest rate swaps platform trueEX. She also spent two and half years as Head of Account Management at ICE and began her career as an account manager at Creditex. McFall Gardner also captained the bronze medal-winning US Synchronized Swimming team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
“OpenDoor is reshaping the way the US Treasury markets are trading, enabling us to better service the needs of our clients with solutions that directly address the lingering liquidity challenges,” said McFall Gardner. “While our client footprint is expanding, we will remain focused on our core mission of delivering a trading platform that can reduce costs and minimize market impact, as a trusted partner to the Treasury market.”
“Delivering a market-based solution which challenges traditional market structure requires talented individuals behind the technology. OpenDoor has reaped immediate, measurable benefits from the great combination of industry knowledge and leadership skills that both Marie and Lauren bring to the table. As we continue to move forward, each will play a pivotal role driving progress and refining trading protocols in response to our expanding customer demand,” said OpenDoor’s CEO and President Susan Estes.
OpenDoor, a certified woman-owned business enterprise and the first bond trading platform majority owned and operated by women, has financial institutions representing $7.3 trillion AUM trading on the platform, an 84% increase since launch. OpenDoor has already tripled its daily order volume from what it was at the end of 2017.