Leadership

 

Doug Rivelli, Co-Chief Executive Officer

Douglas Rivelli joined Pragma Securities as Chief Executive Officer in January of 2009, bringing with him nearly two decades of extensive equity trading experience. Prior to his role at Pragma, Doug spearheaded Weeden & Company’s program and electronic trading businesses, serving as both Managing Director and as a member of the firm’s Senior Management Committee since 2003. Doug began his career working at length in both buy- and sell-side capacities, first for such firms as Fidelity Management and Research and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and later as Founder and Manager of the program and electronic trading businesses at Fidelity Capital Markets. Doug graduated from Tufts University in 1991, earning a BA in Political Science.
 

David Mechner, Co-Chief Executive Officer

David Mechner cofounded Pragma in 2002, led the development of Pragma's flagship product, TradeEngine, and directs Pragma's development team. Pragma has since established itself as an extraordinarily innovative firm, providing unique high-frequency-trading tools, unmatched in their robustness and quantitative sophistication, to institutional clients. Before founding Pragma, David developed and implemented high-frequency-trading strategies as director of research at Pragma Hedge Fund. David entered the field of finance from academia; he was a doctoral fellow at New York University's Center for Neural Science. His interest in intelligent systems began during his computer-science undergraduate years, when he started and led a research effort to develop a strong Go-playing program. David participated in the Japanese professional promotion system for Go and is now among the strongest non-Asian Go players in the world.