Mike Grimaldi still hiring former colleagues to top J.P. Morgan technology jobs

Michael Grimaldi, J. P. Morgan's chief information officer for its corporate and investment bank, has hired yet another former colleague for a top tech job at the firm.

Tom Waite, a senior technologist who was with Grimaldi at Deutsche Bank as well as Goldman Sachs, has joined J. P. Morgan as a managing director in London. Waite served as an MD in electronic trading at Deutsche until earlier this month.

It's not clear at present what Waite will be doing at J.P. Morgan, but it seems probably that he'll be associated with Athena, JPM's Python-based risk analytics and pricing platform, given that he headed Bank of America Merrill Lynch's similar system (Quartz) for two years before leaving it for Deutsche in August 2016. Quartz is BAML’s integrated trading and risk management platform, which was kicked off in 2010. Both Athena, which started operations in 2009, and Quartz replicate Goldman's SecDB (Securities Database) evolved by the firm over the past 20 years.

Waite started his career as a programmer with Ernst & Young in 1990 and spent more than a decade in various tech roles at law firm Pinsent Masons, Univits, and London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE). He joined Goldman in 2001 and remained there for the next 13 years, including six years as an MD. He moved to BAML in 2014, where he was also an MD.

J. P. Morgan recruited Grimaldi last September from Deutsche, which he joined in 2014 to lead technology for its investment bank. Prior to Deutsche, Grimaldi spent 21 years at Goldman Sachs, latterly as head of its securities and equity research technology functions.

Grimaldi has a predilection for hiring former colleagues. In January, he recruited Jim Adams, another ex-Goldmanite who latterly worked a Deutsche, as a managing director, engineering and architecture services. Like Waite, Adams also worked at Goldman and Deutsche at the same time as Grimaldi.

Deutsche's technology division looks like a fertile hunting ground for Grimaldi. Insiders there have complained of low morale as the German bank cuts costs. 

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