THE FMAC EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

Blake Jespersen – President

Director, Foreign Exchange Sales, BMO Capital Markets

Blake is a Director at BMO Capital Markets in the Foreign Exchange Sales group where he advises both corporate and institutional clients in Canada. Blake began his career at BMO Nesbitt Burns in the Finance Department in 2002. A year later, he moved to the FX Commercial Services desk and in 2004, he was promoted to FX Mid-Market Sales with a primary focus on Western Canada. Since 2006, he has been on the FX Corporate and Institutional Sales desk. Blake graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Arts degree and obtained an MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business. He is a CFA Charterholder and a member of the Toronto CFA Society.

Greg Degez – Treasurer

VP, FX Forwards, RBC Capital Markets, CFA

Greg has been trading G7 FX Forwards for the last 6 years for RBC. He started his career in Toronto at TD Securities in their middle office and went on as an associate in their UK office FX trading desk. He then went on to work for RBC Capital Markets UK Structured Credit business before returning to Toronto to join the G7 Forward desk in 2005. Greg graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2000 with an honours Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

Maria Jones – Secretary

FX Sales Manager, TD Securities

Maria began her career in the FX & Fixed Income Strategy Group at TD Securities in 2003. Shortly after, she joined the institutional spot FX trading desk, where she was FX strategist, engaged in trading model research and design, and successfully traded spot foreign exchange and short term rates on a proprietary basis. More recently, she joined the Commercial FX Sales team, with primary coverage of the New England and Mid-Atlantic region of the US. Maria obtained her CFA designation in 2006, and is a member of the Toronto CFA Society.

Jean-François Gratton – Montréal Committee President

Vice-President, Institutional FX Sales Desk, TD Securities

After graduating from Concordia with a M.Sc. (Finance), Jean-François began his career as an associate with the National Bank of Canada. He started in the sales and trading rotation program before joining the FX desk as a spot trader and two years later, an option trader. In 2007, Jean-François joined the institutional FX sales desk of TD Securities in Montreal as Vice-President. He is a CFA charterholder and holds the FRM designation.

Jim Ginis – Director at Large

Executive Director, e-Sales at CIBC World Markets

Jim Ginis is Executive Director, e-Sales at CIBC World Markets. Jim leads the e-Sales team to promote cross-asset e-commerce opportunities to Retail, Corporate and Institutional clients. Jim joined the E-Commerce team in 2001 and has held various roles, including FX trading and sales. His career began in 1994 with State Street Canada in their institutional portfolio valuation department. He then moved on to Bank of America in 1998 and worked in the middle office derivatives group before joining the CIBC World Markets FX Retail Sales and Trading group in 2000. Jim is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and has been a Director of the Financial Markets Association of Canada since 2002.

Tim Harling – Director at Large

Corporate F/X Trader, Jameson Bank

Tim is currently a Corporate F/X trader and Central Trader at Jameson Bank, where he advises corporate clients on their F/X exposure. He started his F/X career at Harlow Meyer Savage on the USD/CAD spot desk in the early 90s. After 4 yrs Tim joined Prebon’s USD/CAD spot desk from there he got involved in brokering forwards as well as spot. Prebon then merged with Tullett and Tokyo becoming Tullett Prebon in late 2005,it was then that Tim moved to New York to join Tullett Prebon’s spot desk covering all currencies with a focus on USD/CAD. He returned to Toronto in late 2008 and started a satellite spot desk at ICAP in Toronto, which was closed in 2010 making Tim the last interbank foreign exchange voice broker in Canada.

Evan Steed – Director at Large

Vice-President and Director, TD Securities

Evan Steed is a Director, Financial Markets Association of Canada and Assistant Vice President of Risk Management, TDBFG. Recently joining Market Risk Control with an interest rate focus, Evan spent 13 years in FX Option trading and sales at several of Canada’s financial institutions. Additionally, he enjoyed a sidebar into fixed income sales and equity trading earlier in his career. Published in FX Week, Evan is always open to a good trade idea in any asset class. Accredited as a CFA, Evan had the pleasure of completing an Engineering degree and MBA at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Kevin Tam – Director at Large

Vice President, Foreign Exchange Sales, Barclays Capital

Kevin is currently a Vice President on the Foreign Exchange Sales desk at Barclays Capital where he advises institutional clients. After graduating from the University of Toronto with an honours Bachelor of Science in 2004, Kevin began his career at State Street where he worked a year in the Operations group before advancing to a sales role in the Foreign Exchange group. In 2010, Kevin joined Barclays Capital as a Vice President in an effort to help build the Barclays brand in Canada.

FMAC INVESTMENT COMMITTEE

Blake Jespersen – President
Greg Degez – Treasurer
Maria Jones – Secretary
Jim Ginis – Director at Large