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WFE Webinar
Putting Performance into Context: Benchmarking Modern Trading Infrastructure
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Event Summary
Putting Performance into Context: Benchmarking Modern Trading Infrastructure
As trading volumes grow, markets operate for longer hours and trading venues adopt increasingly configurable technology platforms, performance benchmarks are becoming an important part of technology evaluation, capacity planning and operational readiness. Yet seemingly comparable headline figures representing ‘orders per second’ or ‘latency’ can convey very different stories depending on how they are measured, what workload is used and how the results are reported.
This WFE webinar brings together industry professionals from Connamara Technologies and Exactpro to examine what makes non-functional performance benchmarks meaningful for trading venues and other market infrastructures. Drawing on their global industry experience, the speakers will explore the importance and composition of representative workloads and methodology behind throughput, latency and capacity measurements. They will also discuss the role of testing functional behaviour under load in the context of complex transaction processing systems.
The discussion will also consider the wider implications for exchanges: how reliable performance evidence can support capacity planning, infrastructure investment, operational resilience, regulatory preparedness and technology selection – and how transparent benchmarking can help market infrastructure providers communicate their capabilities without reducing complex system behaviour to a single headline number.
Who Should Attend
This webinar is aimed at professionals working across exchanges, trading venues, clearing houses and other market infrastructures, as well as those involved in technology evaluation, performance testing, capacity planning and operational resilience.
Registration
Registration is open to WFE members and financial market professionals. Please share this invitation with colleagues involved in selecting, testing or assessing technology for trading and market infrastructure.
Moderator
Richard Metcalfe
Head of Regulatory Affairs World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)
Richard Metcalfe is Head of Regulatory Affairs at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). Before taking up his WFE post in March 2018, he worked on MiFID implementation at the Markets Division of BNY Mellon in London. He also has extensive experience in wholesale financial services and policy issues, with particular emphasis on derivatives and central clearing; and on asset management. In addition to working at ISDA and the IA, he has worked for SWIFT. Earlier in his career, he wrote for and edited various financial publications. He lives in London and studied languages at university.
Speakers
Dan Davis
Chief Revenue Officer Connamara Technologies
Dan Davis is Chief Revenue Officer at Connamara Technologies, where he partners with exchanges, market operators, and emerging trading venues
to launch and scale modern, regulated market infrastructure. With experience spanning PIMCO, high-growth SaaS, and financial technology,
Dan focuses on the commercialization and adoption of new market structures, including prediction markets. He brings a practical perspective
on the technical, regulatory, and operational requirements needed to move event-based trading from niche participation to institutional scale.
Thomas Toller
Managing Director Exactpro USA
Thomas Toller joined Exactpro in 2019 as the Managing Director of Exactoro Systems, US with responsibility for operations and business development in the Americas. As a financial executive with over 15 years of experience in electronic and low latency trading in the US, European, and emerging markets, Thomas has worked for both buy-side and sell-side firms and has served on the Board of Directors and the Global Management Committees of multiple firms, representing them at industry conferences and on the FIA EPTA committee.
Working across multiple disciplines including compliance, risk, operations, and business development has enabled Thomas to build an extensive professional network, and his previous roles required him to hold multiple regulatory registrations including UK FCA: CF1, CF3, CF10, CF11, CF21, and CF26, Central Bank of Ireland PCF1 and PCF12, and in the US – the FINRA Series 7 and Series 24.
Pavel Medvedev
Head of Non-functional Testing Exactpro
Pavel joined Exactpro in 2010, having spent the previous 5 years in software testing. His first project focused on performing non functional testing (NFT) of an exchange platform which soon went live and turned out to be one of the fastest exchange platforms in the world. Pavel has been at the forefront of the creation and development of the company's NFT team. He is now Head of the company’s NFT division.
Iosif Itkin
co-CEO and co-Founder Exactpro
Iosif is co-founder and co-CEO of Exactpro – an independent provider of AI-enabled software testing and related development services for financial organisations. Founded in 2009, Exactpro has a client base of major exchanges, post-trade platform operators, banks and technology vendors across 25 countries.
In his professional career, Iosif has held many technology roles: software developer, performance testing department lead, technology architect – on a number of global financial industry initiatives. Iosif’s expertise at the intersection of high-availability systems and capital markets has enabled him to successfully facilitate technology transformations within exchanges, investment banks and clearing and settlement organisations in London, New York, Milan, Singapore, Sydney and other major financial centres.
Iosif is a co-author of ‘Introduction to AI Testing: Guide to ISTQB® CT-AI Certification’ released in September 2025 by BCS Publishing.
Iosif has organised several industry conferences, including EXTENT – Software Testing and Trading Technology Trends Conference. He frequently speaks at worldwide FinTech events organised by industry associations such as the FIX Trading Community, Futures Industry Association, the World Federation of Exchanges, the Zero Outage Industry Standard and others.
James (Jim) Downs
CEO Connamara Connamara Technologies
James (Jim) Downs founded Connamara Technologies, Inc. with a focus on scaling EP3, the company’s core exchange platform and matching engine. EP3 encapsulates Jim’s extensive knowledge and experience from decades of delivering capital markets software solutions and trading on the floors of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade. Jim graduated from Purdue University, earning a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering.
Speaker Profiles
Dan Davis
Chief Revenue Officer, Connamara Technologies
Dan Davis is Chief Revenue Officer at Connamara Technologies, where he partners with exchanges, market operators, and emerging trading venues
to launch and scale modern, regulated market infrastructure. With experience spanning PIMCO, high-growth SaaS, and financial technology,
Dan focuses on the commercialization and adoption of new market structures, including prediction markets. He brings a practical perspective
on the technical, regulatory, and operational requirements needed to move event-based trading from niche participation to institutional scale.
James (Jim) Downs
CEO Connamara, Connamara Technologies
James (Jim) Downs founded Connamara Technologies, Inc. with a focus on scaling EP3, the company’s core exchange platform and matching engine. EP3 encapsulates Jim’s extensive knowledge and experience from decades of delivering capital markets software solutions and trading on the floors of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade. Jim graduated from Purdue University, earning a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering.
Iosif Itkin
co-CEO and co-Founder, Exactpro
Iosif is co-founder and co-CEO of Exactpro – an independent provider of AI-enabled software testing and related development services for financial organisations. Founded in 2009, Exactpro has a client base of major exchanges, post-trade platform operators, banks and technology vendors across 25 countries.
In his professional career, Iosif has held many technology roles: software developer, performance testing department lead, technology architect – on a number of global financial industry initiatives. Iosif’s expertise at the intersection of high-availability systems and capital markets has enabled him to successfully facilitate technology transformations within exchanges, investment banks and clearing and settlement organisations in London, New York, Milan, Singapore, Sydney and other major financial centres.
Iosif is a co-author of ‘Introduction to AI Testing: Guide to ISTQB® CT-AI Certification’ released in September 2025 by BCS Publishing.
Iosif has organised several industry conferences, including EXTENT – Software Testing and Trading Technology Trends Conference. He frequently speaks at worldwide FinTech events organised by industry associations such as the FIX Trading Community, Futures Industry Association, the World Federation of Exchanges, the Zero Outage Industry Standard and others.
Pavel Medvedev
Head of Non-functional Testing, Exactpro
Pavel joined Exactpro in 2010, having spent the previous 5 years in software testing. His first project focused on performing non functional testing (NFT) of an exchange platform which soon went live and turned out to be one of the fastest exchange platforms in the world. Pavel has been at the forefront of the creation and development of the company's NFT team. He is now Head of the company’s NFT division.
Richard Metcalfe
Head of Regulatory Affairs, World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)
Richard Metcalfe is Head of Regulatory Affairs at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). Before taking up his WFE post in March 2018, he worked on MiFID implementation at the Markets Division of BNY Mellon in London. He also has extensive experience in wholesale financial services and policy issues, with particular emphasis on derivatives and central clearing; and on asset management. In addition to working at ISDA and the IA, he has worked for SWIFT. Earlier in his career, he wrote for and edited various financial publications. He lives in London and studied languages at university.
Thomas Toller
Managing Director, Exactpro USA
Thomas Toller joined Exactpro in 2019 as the Managing Director of Exactoro Systems, US with responsibility for operations and business development in the Americas. As a financial executive with over 15 years of experience in electronic and low latency trading in the US, European, and emerging markets, Thomas has worked for both buy-side and sell-side firms and has served on the Board of Directors and the Global Management Committees of multiple firms, representing them at industry conferences and on the FIA EPTA committee.
Working across multiple disciplines including compliance, risk, operations, and business development has enabled Thomas to build an extensive professional network, and his previous roles required him to hold multiple regulatory registrations including UK FCA: CF1, CF3, CF10, CF11, CF21, and CF26, Central Bank of Ireland PCF1 and PCF12, and in the US – the FINRA Series 7 and Series 24.