Available for Advisory & Board Engagements

Richard Forss

Senior technology executive with three decades of leadership across trading platforms, market infrastructure and enterprise-scale systems for global financial institutions.

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30+ Years Experience
200+ Team Members Led
$8bn+ Assets Supported
RF
About

Fractional CTO & Senior Technology Advisor

I am a hands-on technology executive with more than three decades of experience engineering low-latency trading platforms, high-throughput market infrastructure and enterprise-grade risk systems for multi-billion dollar hedge funds and global financial institutions.

My career spans front-to-back trading technology, market data, portfolio management, cloud architecture, product delivery and operational resilience. I specialise in modernising fragmented or legacy estates into scalable, compliant, cloud-portable platforms capable of supporting institutional-grade throughput and regulatory scrutiny.

Having operated in both major financial institutions and high-growth fintechs, I bring a balanced leadership profile — commercial discipline, technical depth, strong financial governance and a clear understanding of regulatory expectations at global scale.

Based in Zug, Switzerland & Bath, United Kingdom. UK Citizen with Swiss Residency Permit.

Institutional Innovation

Authored Deutsche Bank's first online trading system (dbconvertibles.com) — won the Euromoney award four consecutive years.

Serverless Risk Engineering

Architected an AWS Lambda-based risk engine reducing processing time from 20 hours to 20 minutes for millions of calculations.

Enterprise AI Strategy

Launched an AI strategy embedding LLMs into engineering, operations and client-facing products — achieving 20–30% productivity gains.

10x Platform Scalability

Delivered architectural simplification resulting in a 10x increase in user capacity and order throughput across global markets.

Advisory Services

How I Can Help

Providing strategic technology leadership to financial institutions, fintechs and investment firms at critical inflection points.

Platform Architecture & Modernisation

Transforming fragmented legacy estates into scalable, cloud-portable platforms. Strategic roadmap definition, architectural simplification and technology governance.

Fractional CTO / CIO

Interim and fractional executive technology leadership for organisations undergoing transformation, scaling or preparing for regulatory scrutiny.

Operating Model Transformation

Transitioning technology divisions to modern Product Operating Models with accountable squads, delivery governance and outcome-based oversight.

AI Strategy & Engineering Productivity

Enterprise AI strategy definition and implementation. Embedding LLMs into engineering workflows, operations and client-facing products.

Operational Resilience & Compliance

Strengthening infrastructure to meet DORA, MiFID II, CySEC and global regulatory standards. 99.99% uptime targeting, observability and incident management.

Technology Governance & Financial Control

Financial governance frameworks including annual planning, budget review, CapEx/OpEx classification, IFRS alignment and board-ready reporting.

Career

Professional Experience

Three decades of technology leadership across global banks, hedge funds and fintech firms.

2024 — Present
Jul 2024 — Present

Chief Technology Officer

EXANTE
Cyprus / Zug / Remote

Directing the technical evolution and architectural overhaul of a global multi-asset brokerage and trading platform serving retail, HNW, institutional and white-label clients across 60+ markets. Full accountability for architecture, engineering, product, cybersecurity, market data and IT operations.

10x Scalability AI Strategy 200+ Staff 99.99% Uptime
2023 — 2024
Feb 2023 — Jul 2024

Deputy Chief Technology Officer

Crypto Finance AG (Deutsche Börse Group)
Zürich, Switzerland

Strengthened technical governance, platform resilience and delivery across trading, custody and tokenisation business units. Led the full replacement of the trade-execution platform from strategy through vendor selection and client migration.

Platform Replacement Digital Assets HSM Security
2020 — 2022
Feb 2020 — Dec 2022

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

Covario AG
Zug, Switzerland

Co-founded a digital-asset prime brokerage delivering low-latency algorithmic trading, custody and financing services to HFT hedge funds and institutional asset managers. Designed the core platform from inception.

Co-Founder FINMA Licence 35 Engineers
2012 — 2019
Oct 2012 — Sep 2019

Systems Director

Argentière Capital AG
Zug, Switzerland

Directed all technical operations for a US$3.5bn global hedge fund. Recruited as the first employee to design the complete technology estate. Architected a serverless AWS-based risk engine reducing processing from 20 hours to 20 minutes.

$3.5bn AUM AWS Lambda First Employee
2008 — 2012
Feb 2008 — Jan 2012

Systems Director

Arrowgrass Capital Partners LLP
London, United Kingdom

Directed the technical engineering and infrastructure build-out for a $2.5bn–$8bn hedge fund established as a spin-out from Deutsche Bank AG. Managed the complex migration of proprietary trading models, systems and data.

$8bn Fund DB Spin-out London & NY
1999 — 2008
Jun 1999 — Feb 2008

IT Director / Project Manager

Deutsche Bank AG
London, United Kingdom

Nine years across two roles: IT Director for the OMNIS Hedge Fund incubator, then Project Manager for Convertibles Trading. Designed and authored dbconvertibles.com — Deutsche Bank's first online trading system, winning the Euromoney award four consecutive years.

Euromoney Award x4 First Online Trading OMNIS Fund

Earlier Career

Union Bank of Switzerland
Equities Technology · 1994–1998
NatWest Bank
Credit Card Services · 1993–1994
Credit Suisse First Boston
Trading Technology · 1991–1993
Citibank
Strategic Business Solutions · 1990–1991
Bankers Trust
Warrants & Convertibles · 1998–1999
Track Record

Key Figures

30+
Years in Financial Technology
200+
Engineers, QA & Operations Led
10x
Platform Scalability Increase
4x
Euromoney Award Winner
Technical Expertise

Technology Stack

Languages & Protocols

C# .NET Java SQL REST API FIX Protocol

Cloud & Infrastructure

AWS (Lambda) GCP Azure Kubernetes Docker Hyper-V VMware

Data & Messaging

PostgreSQL SQL Server Oracle NoSQL Kafka RabbitMQ Redis TibCo

Methodologies

Agile CI/CD TDD RAD DevSecOps SDLC
Insights

Recent Thinking

Selected posts from LinkedIn on technology leadership, architecture and engineering culture.

Technology Leadership

The Case for Product Operating Models in Financial Services

Why transitioning from project-led delivery to a product operating model with accountable squads transforms both velocity and outcomes.

Read on LinkedIn
AI & Engineering

Embedding AI Into the Engineering Lifecycle

Practical lessons from integrating LLMs into the SDLC, automated testing and IT operations to deliver measurable productivity gains.

Read on LinkedIn
Architecture

Serverless Risk Engines: Lessons from Production

How we reduced risk calculation processing from 20 hours to 20 minutes using AWS Lambda at a $3.5bn hedge fund.

Read on LinkedIn
Contact

Let's Discuss How I Can Help

Available for fractional CTO/CIO engagements, advisory mandates and board-level technology counsel. Based in Switzerland and the UK.

richard@forss.org +41 79 884 13 86 LinkedIn Profile
Download CV (CTO) Download CV (CTO/CIO)

Zug, Switzerland | Bath, United Kingdom