Pete Cherasia

Peter Cherasia is the former Head of Markets Strategies for J.P. Morgan’s Investment Bank. His responsibilities included managing Markets Technology, Quantitative Research, the Advanced Strategies Group and Strategic Investments. He was a member of the Investment Bank’s 14 person Operating Committee. Previously from 2008 to 2010, Mr. Cherasia was head of Global Technology, Operations and Real Estate for the J.P. Morgan Investment Bank, responsible for technology and operations strategy and execution, as well as the firm’s global location strategy. Managing more than half of the Investment Bank’s staff through the height of the financial crisis, Pete executed on the merger integration with Bear Stearns, and launched a front-to-back re-engineering of the bank’s derivative and processing platforms. Mr. Cherasia joined J.P. Morgan’s Investment Bank from Bear Stearns & Co where he was a member of the Management and Compensation Committee and held multiple senior business management, technology, and operations leadership positions over 23 years. He was the firm’s Chief Information Officer, Global Head of Operations, Director of e-Commerce, Co-Head of the Equity Analytics and Systematic Trading Group and Head of the Financial Analytics and Structured Transactions Group. As CIO/Director of e-Commerce, Mr. Cherasia was responsible for all aspects of global information and trading technology at Bear Stearns as well as all the direct electronic initiatives of the firm such as investments in online businesses and technologies. He was also a member of the Equities Management Committee and the co-head of the Equity Analytics and Systematic Trading Group (‘E.A.S.T’) which produced state-of-the-art algorithms, advanced electronic trading engines and execution-based research. The group was comprised of a unique combination of quantitative researchers, technologists and traders all focused on providing an execution platform that allowed clients and trading desks to implement complex trading strategies, minimize transaction costs and access multiple pools of liquidity while leaving a “zero foot print”. Prior to serving as Global CIO, Mr. Cherasia headed Bear Stearns’ Financial Analytics and Structured Transactions Group (‘F.A.S.T.’) from 1990 – 1999. This group was responsible for the domestic and international creation/structuring of all derivative cash fixed income products, which included Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (‘CMOs’), Derivative Instruments, Asset-Backed Securities, etc. F.A.S.T. was also responsible for the engineering of new products and all facets of research and analysis related to fixed income instruments. Mr. Cherasia served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Bear Stearns Companies as well as the firm’s main subsidiary Bear, Stearns & Co Inc. He was a member of the President’s Advisory Council and Chairman of the firm’s Technology Committee, Chairman of the Board of Bear Stearns Investment Advisors, and President of Bear Stearns Financial Technologies Ltd, Bear Stearns Spanish Securitization Corp., and Bear Stearns Philippines. In addition, he served as Treasurer for Bear Stearns State Asia and was a member of the board for Bear Stearns Tokyo. Prior to joining Bear Stearns in 1985, Mr. Cherasia was a senior software specialist for Digital Equipment Corporation concentrating on the development of financial analytics and trading systems technology. Earlier he was an engineer with Quotron Systems Inc. Mr. Cherasia holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University where he is Vice Chairman of the University’s Board of Overseers, Chairman of the Executive Board of the School of Engineering and Co-Chair of Rutgers University’s Campaign Committee. He is also a board member of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research Advisory Committee.