Luminex Trading & Analytics, a buy side-owned trading venue delivering efficient, low-cost block executions, has appointed industry veteran Ilisa Gruber as sales and relationship manager. Based in Chicago, Gruber will oversee Luminex’s relationships with top clients among its more than 200 buy-side, institutional investors. She will be responsible for increasing engagement with existing clients as well as managing the firm’s continued growth in the US Midwest and other regions.
Gruber joins Luminex with more than 30 years of experience in the financial industry. Most recently, she spent 18 years at Liquidnet, where she was initially hired as the firm’s first sales trader and helped grow the business into a global institutional investment network. Earlier in her career, Gruber worked at leading firms including Thomas Weisel Partners, Schroders & Company and CS First Boston.
Gruber’s experience is wide-ranging, having begun her sales career in high-net-worth retail investing, eventually covering large institutional investors, both domestic and international, for both high-touch and electronic trading.
“Luminex is more than a trading venue; it’s a buy-side community,” says Jonathan Clark, Luminex CEO. “Like any community, it depends on its relationships for its success, and throughout her career, Ilisa has demonstrated an amazing ability to connect with clients and deliver for them. With a focus on block trading, she’s a perfect fit for our team as our existing participants engage more with Luminex, and as we grow our business in the Midwest region.”
“Luminex’s commitment to its participants – and to the end investor – makes it a standard-bearer for the industry,” says Gruber. “Our team is laser-focused on block trading, while some competitors try to be all things to all people. Luminex’s dedication to its clients, and the loyalty it has earned in return, is a perfect match for the midwestern mindset that searches for the best solutions and then sticks with them. I’m excited to be joining the team as we deepen our relationships, and create new ones, in the Midwest and around the country.”
Since its launch in November 2015, trading among Luminex’s participants has grown steadily, as the venue is fulfilling its promise as a destination dedicated to delivering low-cost block trading with minimal information leakage. In June 2020, the latest month for which FINRA data is available, Luminex saw an average natural block trade size of 46,000 shares, placing it among the leaders in FINRA’s 10k block trading category.
