Nearwater Capital Announces Appointment of Gary Barnett and John Willian to the Board of Directors of Nearwater Capital Markets, Limited.

DUBLIN, July 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearwater Capital today announced the formal appointment of Gary Barnett and John Willian as non-executive directors to the board of Nearwater Capital Markets, Limited (Nearwater Capital Markets). Nearwater Capital Markets is the firm's new security-based swap dealer (SBSD). Following the appointment, the board will be comprised of 5 directors, three of whom are independent or non-executive directors, including Chairperson Davina Saint, a senior banking executive and independent director based in Ireland.

Mrs. Saint confirmed:

"I am really looking forward to working with Gary and John. Gary brings a wealth of swap dealer regulatory expertise and insight to the firm and John's deep experience in the trading and financing markets will be an invaluable asset to the Board."

Mr. Barnett has an extensive background in swap dealer and security-based swap dealer policy, regulation and oversight.  He was appointed by the Honorable Gary Gensler to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2011as the first Director of the CFTC's Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (now the Market Participants Division) , where he established the registration and compliance programs for Swap Dealers under the new regulatory regime established by the Dodd Frank Act. Mr. Barnett led the responses to the futures commission merchant (FCM) and RFED crises following MF Global, including the reorientation of the CFTC's exam program and the creation and adoption of the FCM customer protection rules while at the CFTC.  

In 2015, Mr. Barnett left the CFTC to join the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as Deputy Director of the Division of Trading and Markets, where he oversaw the division's Office of Broker-Dealer Finances, Office of Derivatives Policy, Office of Trading Practices and its Volcker Rule team in addition to various global regulatory initiatives.

Mr. Willian is a former Partner of Goldman Sachs, having spent over 28 years in a variety of senior sales, trading and capital markets related roles.

 At Goldman Sachs, Mr. Willian's responsibilities included serving as Global Head of Prime Services within Global Securities Services, and running Goldman Sachs Electronic Trading and Futures Businesses, Municipal Sales and Trading, and Goldman's Global Money Markets businesses.  Prior to his retirement, Mr. Willian was Goldman's Global Head of Fixed Income Sales. 

Mr. Willian was also a member of Goldman's 's Finance Committee, Securities Division Business Practices Committee, as well as the firm-wide New Products Committee. 

Mrs. Saint, who has been on the board since 2022, was the General Counsel for the BNP SA Group in Ireland for 19 years, before becoming the Head of Branch in Ireland for BNP Paribas' Securities Services business. Mrs. Saint sat on various boards for the BNP Paribas Group including their Prime Brokerage lending company and the main Irish Holding Company of the Bank (BNP Paribas Ireland.) In 2020, Mrs. Saint was appointed by the Ministry of Finance as a Director of the National Asset Management Agency where she is an Independent Director and chairs the Remuneration Committee. She also serves on the board of BlackRock Global Funds plc in Luxembourg.

Nearwater Capital Markets was established and capitalized in 2021 in Ireland and is owned and operated by Nearwater Capital. Nearwater Capital Markets will be registering with the SEC as a security-based swap dealer with the intent of being the preeminent hedging and risk mitigation counterparty for global banks via total return swaps. The Capital Markets business model will build on the success of Nearwater's Liquid Markets franchise, which has grown to $14.5 billion in assets since its inception in 2019.

Nearwater Capital, LP ("Nearwater Capital') is a specialty finance company that was established in 2017. The firm is a leading provider of financing to sponsors to assist with compliance with Dodd-Frank and other global risk retention requirements and one of the largest sponsors of secured debt programs. In the last two years, the firm has experienced strong growth, with its employee headcount doubling in size and its balance sheet currently over $18A billion as of year-end 2021. 

SOURCE Nearwater Capital