OANDA is onboarding quality new talent these days. The company has attracted a well versed senior digital marketing figure to its team. Julie Sobrato Craig joined the company from AI-powered search engine AlphaSense.
Julie Craig’s experience in the industry started in 1999 when she joined Data Broadcasting Corp also known as MarketWatch. Her last position at the firm was as Director of Marketing.
In 2007, she joined another very popular company in the trading industry - eSignal. While working at the subsidiary of Market Data, Julie Craig became VP of Marketing before leaving to AlphaSense in 2012.
OANDA Acquisition
Back in May, CVC Capital Partners acquired OANDA from its shareholders. After the deal was announced, the firm largely kept in place its senior executives led by Vatsa Narasimha.
Last month the retail brokerage attracted to its board another senior industry professional. None other than the former CEO of IG Group, Tim Howkins joined the company as Chairman.
His 16 years tenure at IG Group landed makes him one of the most prominent figures in the industry.
The valuation of OANDA was estimated at $175 million with the deal becoming the biggest acquisition in the industry for 2018.
A Changing Market
The retail trading market has been changing rapidly throughout the past year. The regulatory and commercial changes from Google and social media companies affected the market in a big way.
Marketing has been heavily impacted by the new regulatory restrictions in Europe. Firms have been scrambling to differentiate their marketing strategy since the introduction of the new restrictions on advertising.
The hire of a new senior marketing executive comes during an important transition for the industry, especially in Europe. The introduction of a Leverage cap and the mandatory disclosure of the number of losing clients drove brokers to start looking for alternative ways to acquire clients.
The global changes to Google and Facebook’s advertising policies have also affected the industry, but mostly the unregulated part of it. The multiple regulatory licenses which OANDA holds, warrant that the firm continues to have ample opportunities for advertising via the most popular online channels.
