Source: financemagnates, 2024/1/29
Rostro Group, the parent company of popular trading brand Scope, announced in a statement today (Wednesday) the appointment of two executives to senior positions.
Dimitra Charalambous has joined as Group CFO, while Sami Christou has been appointed Managing Director of Systematic Market Making, marking the latest additions to the company’s management structure.
Rostro Group Appoints New CFO, Head of Trading
Charalambous, who will be based in Limassol, has held senior finance roles in the trading industry for the past decade and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. She served as CFO at Binance for the past three years. Previously, she held a similar role at eToro.
Meanwhile, Christo brings 17 years of experience in trading and risk management roles at UK brokerage firms and will be based in London. In the past, Christo has worked with a number of other firms in the industry, starting his career as a trader at GAIN Capital. He then progressed to a senior trader role at LCG and eventually became head of trading at Equiti Capital. Over the past four years, he has been associated with Advanced Markets Group and Exinity as head of risk.
Michael Ayers, CEO of Rostro Group, commented: “As we continue to build Rostro’s proposition into a business offering a broader range of products and services, I am delighted to welcome both Demetra and Sammy to the team.” “Their extensive industry experience will be a real asset to the company, not only when it comes to strengthening day-to-day operations, but also in helping us formulate and execute our longer-term strategy.”
The appointments follow Rostro’s recent expansion into futures and options trading, connecting institutional clients to global exchanges. The initiative is overseen by Saul Knapp, who serves as Chief Risk Officer and Managing Director of Futures and Options.
The Year of AI and Block chain
According to the CEO, the firm plans to implement AI and blockchain technologies later this year as part of its strategy to handle more of the trading cycle internally. He noted increased market activity and increased interest from potential counterparties in early 2025.
“As our institutional client book grows, dedicating more resources to systematic functions supports our mission to handle a larger proportion of each trading cycle internally,” Ayers added. “Although we are less than a month into the new year, it is abundantly clear that market activity is increasing and a growing number of counterparties are eager to work with us.”
Rostro Group, founded by Roger Humbrey in 2021, operates several brokerage brands and maintains investments in fintech companies. The firm offers financial products and services globally through its various subsidiaries. Rostro, which recently rebranded Scope Markets as Scope, has been very active in hiring financial industry professionals, particularly those with experience in FX/CFD businesses.
Finance Magnates recently interviewed Ayres to discuss the latest hires and expansion plans. At the end of last year, he said his company had surpassed 200 employees, and the number continued to grow in January.
He noted that “the hires have been really in specific areas… We’re not going to continue at this rate; otherwise, I’m probably going to end up with more people than I want to oversee.”
Key additions to the Scope Prime team include Andrew Taylor as head of Asia Pacific and Merian Rosten as head of Southeast Asia. The company has also brought on Gaby Kang, an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience, to oversee operations in the Middle East and North Africa markets. Additionally, Fraser Nelson joined Scope Markets earlier this year as global head of business development.