Our Leadership Team

Anthony Castelli, Chief Compliance Officer and Director of Operations

Andrew Frank,  Global Equity Trading Sales & Marketing 

Lee Geiger, U.S. Institutional Equity Sales & Trading

Paul Gilbert, Fixed Income Capital Markets

Robert Goddard, U.S. Institutional Equity Sales & Trading

George Madrigal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Eduardo Prado, Fixed Income Capital Markets

Thomas Sanders, Global Equity Trading (Europe)

Jason Valdez, Global Equity Trading (Americas)

George Madrigal, founder and Chief Executive Officer. Before founding the Firm, George spent more than thirteen years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), now the world’s largest asset managers as part of BlackRock. While at BGI he held a variety of senior roles including Senior Portfolio Manager of international equity portfolio management and Head of Transition Management, a short-horizon portfolio management and trading solutions group where he managed a team of investment professionals including portfolio managers, traders, and research specialists. As Head of the Transition Management Group, George was also a Registered Representative and a General Securities Principal with the BGI affiliated broker-dealer, Barclays Global Investors Services (BGIS).  BGIS was responsible for executing a majority of securities trades for BGI Transition Management for institutional customers such as retirement plans, endowments, and foundations.  While a principal for BGIS, he was involved in billions of dollars of securities transactions covering U.S. exchange listed equities, U.S. over-the-counter equities, non-U.S. equities, U.S. government securities, U.S. mortgage-backed securities, and U.S. corporate debt.   As a portfolio manager, George developed a wide range of market experience covering a variety of other products including exchange traded funds, mutual funds, index futures contracts, currency trading, and non-U.S. equities for both the developed and emerging markets.  Before leaving BGI, he was responsible for leading the expansion of BGIS’ brokerage business to included fixed income securities.  George holds a B.S. from CSU Fullerton and graduate degrees from Columbia University (MBA with a focus in capital markets and securities analysis) and UC Berkeley (MBA with a focus in business strategy).  He holds security licenses 3, 7, 24, and 63

Anthony Castelli, Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) and Director of Operations. He was formerly the Chief Compliance Officer of Joseph A. Sangimino Inc., a firm tailored towards servicing institutional clients.  As CCO, Anthony was responsible for restructuring the firm’s entire compliance procedures and worked closely with Exchange Regulation to spot potential flaws in overall independent broker compliance.  Some of his notable work  included, but was not limited to the development of the Business Continuity Plan by analyzing the firm’s financial and operational risk, developed a transaction cost/commission analysis program for floor executions, instituted proper AML procedures as acting supervisor, maintained a correct error log and complaint file, formed and enforced standards of supervision, structure on opening new accounts, acceptable conduct of employees, rules on personal securities transactions, communications with customers, and created a successful general firm culture of compliance.  He acted as an equity trader, trading and accessing away markets from the NYSE floor before taking on full-time compliance duties at Penserra.  Anthony received his B.S. in Business Administration from Villanova University.  He holds security licenses 7, 14, 24, 25, 53, 55, and 63.

Global Equity Program Trading

Andrew Frank, Global Program Trading Sales & Marketing, Managing Director.  Andrew joined the firm after 20 years of experience in the industry on both the Buy Side and Sell Side.  For over 5 years he was a Vice President at Jefferies on the program trading desk where he worked as a Sales Trader covering US markets.  In addition Andrew was Vice President at HSBC Securities on the global program trading desk focused on the international markets.  He also worked at NYSE Euronext where he helped develop and build the MatchPoint trading platform for the exchange.  Prior to that, Andrew was Director of Sales for Instinet’s Crossing Network for 7 years.  His experience includes electronic trading, dark pools, algorithms, program trading, direct market access and market structure.  Andrew’s career began at Merrill Lynch and Sanford Bernstein where he worked in both sales and portfolio management.  He holds a BA in Political Economy from Tulane University and current holds his security licenses 7, 55 and 63.

  Jason Valdez, Global Program Trading (Americas), Managing Director.  He has over sixteen years of industry experience primarily focused on program trading and transition management with his earlier roles including OTC market making, options and futures trading.  Jason has experience accessing all sources of liquidity through ECNs, crossing networks, Dark Pools, algorithms, and floor brokers with a strong proficiency in trading small and mid-cap stocks.   Jason has experience working closely with quantitative strategists to improve trading models and engineer execution strategies.  In addition, he is very knowledgeable in the area of trading technology, transaction cost analysis (TCA), and US equity market structure. Previously he was the Director of Trading for Rosenblatt Securities where he was responsible for restructuring program trading along with its technology including middle office operational processes. Jason has also worked on the buy side as a senior US equity trader at Russell Implementation Services where he was responsible for transition management, mutual fund, and single stock trading. Additionally, while at Thomas Weisel Partners he was one of three traders hired to construct, implement and develop program trading and performance analysis.  He also managed the FIX connectivity effort to complement and enrich the existing single-stock platform for US and international clients. Jason received his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and currently holds his series 3, 7, 24, 55, and 63.

Tom Sanders, Global Equity Program Trading (Pan Europe), Senior Vice President. Tom joined Penserra after more than twenty years in the industry as global equity trader and market maker. While at Bank of America Securities for seven years, he was the Managing Director of International Equities where he managed trading, sales and sales trading.  Tom was responsible for daily trading risk of $40 million long/$40 million short while building out the trading desk in London. He also spent eleven years at Union Bank of Switzerland Securities where he was part of the UBS start-up team in New York.  Tom was a market maker in European OTC and listed stocks and started South African and Latin America trading books.  He also held previous trading positions at NatWest Securities, McDonald & Company Securities, and Drexel Burnham Lambert. He holds security licenses 7, 55, and 63

U.S. Equity Institutional Sales & Trading

Robert Goddard, Domestic Equity Institutional Sales & Trading, Managing Director.  He joined Penserra with twenty-five years of industry experience as a sales trader.  Robert has a history of building and expanding trading desks for the previous firms he worked with. Robert most recently spent six years at JMP Securities LLC where he was a partner and head of trading.  He spent eleven years at Montgomery Securities (NationsBanc/Banc America Securities) where he was a partner and managing director. Robert was a senior institutional sales trader, NASDAQ trader and helped manage the trading desk as the second in command.  Previous to that position he was a NASDAQ trader at Kidder Peabody & Co. Robert received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.  He holds security licenses 7, 24, 55, and 63

Lee Geiger, Domestic Equity Institutional Sales & Trading, Senior Vice President. Lee has almost twenty-five years of industry experience as a sales trader.  Over his career, he has built deep relationships with some of the largest asset management firms in the country.  Mr. Geiger most recently spent three years at JMP Securities LLC where he was a partner and head of sales trading.   He also spent six years at Montgomery Securities (NationsBanc/Banc America Securities) where he was initially a senior sales trader then co-managed the sales trading desk as a managing director.  Lee had previous sales trading positions with Robertson Stephens and Company and First Boston Corporation.  He has a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and a M.B.A from Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. He holds security licenses 7, 24, 55, and 63.

Fixed Income Capital Markets

Eduardo Prado, Fixed Income Capital Markets, Managing Director. He joined the firm in September of 2010 to establish its fixed income department.  Ed has over 20 years of experience in the bond industry.  He founded and self funded Finacorp Securities in 1994 to offer fixed-income products to small and mid-size institutions.  At the time, he became the youngest member/owner broker dealer to be granted licensing in FINRA District 2.  In 1998, he created an online trading platform for bonds that formed the foundation for Tradebonds.com.  He has since been at the forefront of creating technologies for the bond market and has expanded this technology internationally.  Prior to founding Finacorp Securities, Ed worked as a principal at U.S. Central Securities as well as at Commerce Bank, where he built the bank‘s multi-billion dollar safekeeping system handling money market securities.  Ed’s experience as a bond trader on both the buy and sell side has provided insight and guidance for the formation of Tradebonds and the various internal systems used at Penserra.  He has been a noted speaker at several international and domestic industry conferences on the topic of electronic trading systems and fixed income trading.  Ed is a graduate of the University of Southern California where he earned a B.S. in Finance.  He serves on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Academy of Arts & Enterprise (LAAAE). In addition he is involved in leadership roles at Loyola High School (Los Angeles) and The Special Olympics.  He holds security licenses Series 7, 24, 28, 63 and 79. 

Paul Gilbert, Fixed Income Capital Markets, Senior Vice President.  Paul joined Penserra Securities in November, 2010. His expertise is working with accounts to manage their liquidity needs. His focus has been on financial institutions such as: municipalities (state, county, local, and water districts), banks, trust departments, investment advisors and asset managers. Mr. Gilbert has over 25 years experience in the fixed income marketplace. He has worked at several large regional dealers including Sutro, Legg Mason, Stone and Youngberg, and Vining Sparks. He also maintained several memberships in public entity trade organizations such as the CMTA (California Municipal Treasurer Association) and CACTTA (California Association of County Treasurers and Tax Collectors). He frequently attends annual meetings of the above groups, as well as ABA Training classes in bank investments, and other trade groups such as the Western Independent Bankers Association. Mr. Gilbert is a graduate of St. Lawrence University, BS and received an MBA from Pepperdine University. He holds security licenses 7 and 63.