EquiLend Names Simon Heath Chief Strategy Officer

WHY THIS MATTERS

The appointment of Simon Heath as Chief Strategy Officer, announced on May 12, 2026, marks a major “practitioner-to-platform” move for EquiLend. As the former Global Head of Agency Securities Finance at J.P. Morgan, Heath brings over 25 years of institutional experience and a formidable book of industry relationships to EquiLend’s Executive Leadership Team. This matters because EquiLend is currently reinforcing its status as “critical market infrastructure” during a period of intense regulatory and structural change in the securities finance sector, including the shift toward T+1 settlement and increased demand for collateral optimization.

Based in London and reporting directly to CEO Rich Grossi, Heath’s mandate is to bridge the gap between EquiLend’s technology and the evolving needs of its global client base. His deep understanding of market structure will be vital as EquiLend moves to expand its regional footprint—particularly across APAC and EMEA—and accelerates the rollout of its next-generation data and analytics tools. For EquiLend, hiring one of the industry’s most senior practitioners is a strategic bet that “knowing the trade” is the best way to build the “tech for the trade.”

EquiLend, the global financial technology, data and analytics firm specializing in the securities finance industry, today announced the appointment of Simon Heath as Chief Strategy Officer. Heath joins EquiLend’s Executive Leadership Team and will be based in London, reporting to CEO Rich Grossi.

In his new role, Heath will drive EquiLend’s strategic growth agenda, partnering across the organization to accelerate regional expansion, support continued product innovation, and reinforce EquiLend’s position as critical market infrastructure for the global securities finance industry.

Heath joins EquiLend from J.P. Morgan, where he most recently served as Managing Director and Global Head of Agency Securities Finance. Across more than 25 years in the industry, he has built deep expertise in securities finance, client strategy, and market structure.

“Simon’s appointment reflects our continued investment in strengthening EquiLend’s market leadership and expanding our influence at the center of the global securities finance market,” said Rich Grossi, CEO of EquiLend. “His practitioner background, market perspective, and deep industry relationships will be instrumental in identifying new opportunities for growth – across our product suite and across the regions we serve. Simon’s leadership is uniquely aligned with our mission, our culture, and the role EquiLend plays as critical market infrastructure for the industry.”

“EquiLend sits at the center of the global securities finance market, and there are few firms with a comparable vantage point on where the industry is heading,” said Heath. “I’ve spent my career on the practitioner side of this business, and I look forward to bringing that perspective to the team as we work to expand EquiLend’s footprint and capabilities for clients globally.”

FF NEWS TAKE

EquiLend is effectively “hiring the client.” By bringing in a Managing Director from a bulge-bracket firm like J.P. Morgan, EquiLend is ensuring that its roadmap is perfectly aligned with the operational realities of the world’s largest lenders and borrowers. Simon Heath is not just a strategist; he is a veteran of the “front line” who has navigated the complexities of global agency lending through multiple market cycles.

However, Heath joins at a transformative time for the firm. Following its acquisition by Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS) in early 2024 and the recent launch of EquiLend 1Source—the industry’s distributed ledger initiative to eliminate reconciliation breaks—the pressure is on to scale. Heath’s primary challenge will be to maintain EquiLend’s “neutrality” as market infrastructure while aggressively pursuing the innovative products that the industry’s digital-first future demands. If Heath can translate his “buy-side” perspective into “infrastructure-side” execution, EquiLend will likely pull even further ahead as the definitive global hub for securities finance.