Directors & Officers
Venkatesh Ramasamy
Venkatesh (Venkat) Ramasamy is the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Sernova Financial, which was incorporated in 2015.
Prior to forming Sernova Financial, he was SVP for Business Services and Utilities at Calypso, a technology enterprise. Before joining Calypso Technology, Venkat was Global Co-Head of Prime Services at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he established a cross-asset service for financial institutions. In that role, Venkat led pivotal initiatives providing ETD and OTC clearing, intermediation on rates and FX, portfolio cross-asset financing and cross margining. In the early part of his career, Venkat held a number of management roles on the business and IT side at leading global banks; RBS and Dresdner Kleinwort, in its London and Tokyo offices. Venkat has a B.Eng degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Richard Thompson
Richard Thompson is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Sernova Financial.
Prior to forming the company, Richard was responsible for the utility product development, at Calypso Technology, concentrating on clearing and collateral management. Before joining Calypso, Richard was Head of European OTC clearing and Rates intermediation at the Royal Bank of Scotland, with a key focus on product strategy, design and delivery. In the early part of his career, Richard held several Risk and front office roles around different buy- and sell- side institutions, with special focus on Prime Brokerage and Clearing. Richard has a BSc degree in Physics, specialising in quantum mechanics.
Ulf Bacher
Ulf Bacher is the Head of Sales at Sernova Financial and based in Frankfurt.
Before joining the company, Ulf held numerous senior positions in the financing and collateral management industry, both as principal and agent, including Co-Head of Agency Cash Management (ACM) at Société Générale. In his time in the industry, he has accumulated a wealth of market knowledge and built long standing customer relationships. Prior roles include Global Head of Short Term Products at Dresdner Bank AG in Frankfurt and Head of the European repo desk at Goldman Sachs International in London. Ulf studied Business Administration at the University of Mannheim, Germany.
Sanjay Patel
Sanjay Patel is the Chief Financial Officer of Sernova Financial.
Sanjay is a qualified accountant with significant senior leadership experience. Sanjay specialises in offering depth and breadth of financial management, commercial and strategic planning skills, which are essential in leadership finance positions in multinational, high-growth technology, software and service businesses. With over 20 years of experience, Sanjay introduced effective sales analysis and partner strategy at Calypso Technology and was responsible for finance, legal, and HR activities. Prior to this, Sanjay held several senior management positions at Misys, a FTSE 100 company – including CFO for Northern Europe and global CFO for the banking division of the company.
Ian Holmes
Ian Holmes is the Chief Technology Officer of Sernova Financial.
Prior to joining the company, Ian was responsible for Calypso development and projects at BlueCrest Capital Management. Before BlueCrest, he was Principal Consultant and Professional Services Manager at Calypso Technology, responsible for several large scale projects, including the LCH “Magma” Clearing, Collateral & Liquidity project. His expertise lies within Trading Systems and Infrastructure management, having more than 25 years of experience and having held senior roles for the duration of these years including management positions at BlueCrest, GlobeOp, ECM Asset Management, IQ Financial Systems and Rolfe & Nolan. Ian has a BSc in Mathematics.
Leonor Cunha
Leonor Cunha is the Head of Client Solutions.
At Sernova, she is responsible for managing the analytical, middle and back-office functions and leads a team who manage the day-to-day operations of the business. Her knowledge encompasses OTC Derivatives, Valuations, Product Lifecycle, Settlements, Collateral Management and Reconciliations. Before joining Sernova, Leonor managed a multi-asset operations team at Chenavari Investment Managers and Deutsche Bank, supporting a number of desks from Rates, Credit, Fixed Income, FX, Equity, Commodities and Emerging Markets. Prior to this, Leonor was responsible for managing the RBS structuring desk middle office operations. Leonor has a Master’s in Financial Markets specialising in Derivative and Cash instruments.