Management
The Razor Risk Technologies Executive Management Team has extensive global experience in strategic and senior managerial roles across the financial services sector. Our management team's acute understanding of our clients' requirements coupled with a dynamic and adaptable focus enables us to develop, manage and deliver solutions to our clients' business challenges.
Andrew Wood, Group Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Wood was appointed as Group Chief Executive Officer on 11 September 2008 and as a Director on 1 February 2009. Andrew has a strong finance and operations background, with over 15 years of experience working globally across multiple business environments. His last role prior to joining Razor Risk Technologies was with Corymbia Investments Ltd in the UK, a business consultancy focusing on operational and financial management.
Based for some years in America, Andrew was a Senior Vice President with Management Consulting Group plc, whose consultancies specialise in risk management, Sarbanes Oxley and general operational and sales performance consulting. In Australia, Andrew was Chief Financial and Commercial Officer with Object Consulting, an Australian software development and training organization.
Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts - Economics (Honours) from Manchester University, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Firoozeh Walker, Chief Operating Officer
Firoozeh Walker joined Razor Risk Technologies in December 2008. Firoozeh has over 25 years’ experience in the technology and software industry gained in across a variety of industries, in particular financial services and retail. With a broad range of experience across management, sales, delivery and technical roles, Firoozeh has a successful track record of implementing large and complex projects, developing and executing product and solution strategies, and creating sales initiatives. Prior to her appointment as Chief Operating Officer in July 2009, Firoozeh was Razor Risk Technologies’ Global Head of Delivery.
Previously, Firoozeh was Professional Services Sales Manager at Sun Microsystems in Sydney where she successfully managed all sales and professional services delivery initiatives to ensure ongoing satisfaction for a range of clients including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Macquarie Group Services, St. George, Westpac, EDS, Vodafone, Westfield and Woolworths. Firoozeh also held senior project management and presales roles at Sun Microsystems.
Earlier in her career, Firoozeh held a number of management and delivery positions with premier organizations including NCR, Custom Software and Esso Australia.
Firoozeh has a Bachelor of Science degree (Honours) in Business Administration Management, a Masters of Computer Science and a Diploma in IT Law.
Richard Bennett, Unit President, Europe
Richard Bennett joined Razor Risk Technologies in March 2007. Richard has extensive experience in delivering risk measurement and management services to the global financial information industry, worldwide.
Prior to joining Razor Risk Technologies, Richard served as Chief Operating Officer for CicadaRisk, an independent pricing and risk measurement service company providing a daily service to the asset management and re-insurance markets. Richard was also directly involved in developing and executing the company's global business strategy and creating product-planning programs.
Richard also served at Algorithmics, in a series of roles of increasing responsibility. As Global Director, Operational Risk, Richard's role involved worldwide business management, including strategy definition and implementation, development planning, and client support. Richard was also involved in the design of the Algorithmics Operational Risk products for the identification and quantification of enterprise-wide operational risk. Prior to this position, Richard also served as Algorithmics' Business Development Manager for Europe where he was directly responsible for a number of enterprise risk projects which were ultimately given "internal model approval" by various regulatory bodies.
Richard has also held management roles at Infinity Financial Technologies and BIS Banking Systems where he worked in sales, marketing and operations.
Franklin Robinson, Unit President, Americas
As Unit President, Americas, Franklin Robinson is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Razor Risk Technologies’ Americas business from the company’s New York office. With over 20 years of experience in financial markets, including financial risk management, bank balance sheet management and trading, Franklin draws on his deep industry knowledge to provide clients and prospects with strategic advice regarding the latest developments in risk management.
Franklin Robinson joined Razor Risk Technologies in September 2009. Prior to his appointment as Unit President, Americas in January 2010, Franklin was Senior Risk Consultant Americas.
Before joining Razor Risk Technologies, Franklin headed up the Risk Due Diligence division of the Hedge Fund Management Group for Barclays Global Investors. Franklin’s responsibilities included performing risk due diligence for a fund of externally managed hedge funds, ranging from $100mm to $12B, and assessing the quality and adequacy of risk systems, valuation models, and risk reports. He was also Vice President, Market Risk Management at JPMorgan Chase and has held senior roles at HSBC and Eastbridge Capital Inc.
Earlier in his career, Franklin was Partner and Vice President Product Development at Decision Software, and held various roles at Citibank in New York.
Franklin holds a Ph.D. in Regional Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Humanities and Technology.
John McComb, Practice Director, Asia Pacific
John McComb joined Razor Risk Technologies in October 2009 and has over 20 years of banking, capital markets and asset management sector experience. In addition to a track record of successful strategic implementations, John has strong knowledge of risk management techniques and deep financial markets product knowledge across most asset classes and complex derivatives.
Prior to joining Razor Risk Technologies, John was a Principal for Alcaston Solutions, a consulting business providing advisory services to the Health and Financial Services Industries, including risk management advisory to banking and general financial services firms.
Previously, John was Director, Market Risk at Artesian Capital Management, a global hedge fund specializing in fixed income credit arbitrage and relative value investment strategies. John was responsible for establishing a market risk program encompassing multiple asset classes and risk types with a particular focus on global credit arbitrage.
Before joining Artesian Capital Management, John spent 12 years with ANZ Bank in various senior management capital markets roles. He held a number of strategic leadership roles in the redesign and merger of ANZ Bank’s Capital Markets businesses, including Head of NBNZ Integration, Capital Markets and Operations, Technology and Strategy Workstream Leader for the integration of ANZ’s Capital Markets and Foreign Exchange & Commodity businesses.
At ANZ Bank, John was also Director of e-Commerce, Capital Markets where he successfully led the development, implementation and customer delivery of an online multi-channel distribution strategy for the Capital Markets business, automating the financial markets sales processes to support real time trade execution. John also held the roles of Head of Structured Products, Asia Pacific, and Head of Interest Rate Derivative Trading.
Earlier in his career, John held various roles at Westpac including the New Zealand Head of Rates Trading and Australia and New Zealand based roles within Westpac Capital Markets.
John holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Business in Finance and Economics.
Thies Arens, Senior Vice President Product Management
Thies has 17 years’ experience in software engineering and consulting, with a specific focus on risk management systems for financial institutions globally. Thies is regarded as a key Razor Subject Matter Expert and has a strong track record in successfully managing project teams through the application development lifecycle, from requirements definition through to support, to meet the business needs of clients in Australia, Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East. Thies is also an experienced senior risk management consultant, providing consulting services to financial institutions, both locally and internationally, to develop an integrated, holistic approach to risk management and control, helping them to benefit from their investments in internal controls.
Thies was appointed to Razor Risk Technologies’ Senior Vice President Product Manager in July 2009 and is responsible for development, support and QA. Previously, he was Head of Product Consulting where he supported the pre-sales and client relationship process with a focus on business analysis and consulting, and the quantitative analysis of requirements for credit, market, clearing and liquidity risk. He has also previously held the role of Application Development Manager for Razor.
Thies joined Razor Risk Technologies from Misys plc located in London, within the risk management solutions group, where he was responsible for the application software development of several risk management applications, including the credit and market risk engines, portfolio management, pricing/deal entry and market/credit data management. Prior to this, he worked for Financialware in Sydney specialising in market risk and portfolio management software.
Thies holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment.