Tom Playford Chief Technology Officer, Sparta Commodities

Company

If you look through the worlds biggest companies by market capitalization, commodities continue to be heavily represented. Tied to this is commodities trading which makes up one of the key asset classes in the financial markets. The industry is going through a significant period of change with the energy transition, move to the spot market and access to data amongst other factors. The equities and fixed income markets have long had access to modern data analytics from vendors such as Bloomberg but commodities has lagged significantly behind.

Founded in 2020 by two former traders, Felipe Elink Schuurman and Miles Moseley, Sparta has built a groundbreaking platform, designed to substantially increase the speed and effectiveness of commodity traders by presenting market intelligence, pricing and forecasting data in real-time, allowing users to spot trading opportunities before their competition.

Search Background

After raising their Series A, led by FirstMark, Sparta engaged Erevena to find a Chief Technology Officer and VP of Product to join the executive team and drive their respective functions, from strategy setting to day to day management of the team, as the business scales into new verticals and across asset classes.

Requirements

We were looking for a track record of success in real-time data systems, with the individuals having brought a modern approach to complex data challenges and preferably applied technology such as AI to resolve them. They would have seen a scaling journey and understand the how to operate effectively in an early stage environment. We were also looking for those with strong leadership skills, able to coach and develop a high performing team and drive their organisations as the key figurehead.

Result

Erevena looked within modern data analytics businesses that had scaled successfully and found the successful candidate from Palantir. Erevena placed Tom Playford, who is a previously successful CTO founder, and most recently spent six years Palantir working across the aerospace, banking and energy sectors.