The 2017 Tech 40: Sebastián Ceria

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< The 2017 Tech 40

35. Sebastián Ceria
Chief Executive Officer
Axioma
Last year: 35

In the 19 years since Sebastián Ceria founded Axioma, a software company focused on the buy side, changes in financial markets and information technology have accelerated. Ceria has built the New York–based business to keep pace as risk and portfolio management decisions increasingly require on-demand analytics that can’t be pushed back till the end of the day or overnight. Axioma, which started out as a consulting firm in mathematical modeling and began selling portfolio optimization software in 2001, entered the risk systems business in 2006. By 2013 it was touting its multi-asset class, enterprise-wide Axioma Risk as “a quantum leap forward,” combining simulation- and factor-based approaches for portfolio and risk managers on a common platform for the first time. Stressing innovation processes that invite customer collaboration, along with agile systems development and a heavy reliance on the capacity and flexibility of cloud computing, Axioma has grown to more than 240 employees and about 200 asset management, pension fund, and hedge fund clients worldwide. “We could not have accomplished what we did without the cloud,” says Ceria, 52, who completed a Ph.D. in operations at Carnegie Mellon University and earned an undergraduate degree in applied math at the University of Buenos Aires.

The 2017 Tech 40