Multex Loses President to Old School Firm

Online financial services company Multex.com Inc. is losing its president to a bricks n’ mortar financial services giant, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter .

Multex president Jim Tousignant has resigned to become executive vice president for business development and e-commerce for Morgan Stanley’s private client and asset management business, a newly created role. Tousignant has been a principal player in driving the company’s overall business strategy ever since he cofounded the company with Chairman and CEO Isaak Karaev, who will assume the additional title of president.

“Jim Tousignant has been a major contributor to Multex.com’s phenomenal growth, and we will miss his creativity and boundless energy. Going forward, we have a deep and talented senior management team of seasoned executives who thrive in this fast-paced environment,” Karaev said in a press release.

As for Tousignant’s responbilities, his main areas of marketing and business development have been assigned to Gregg Amonette, who assumes the new position of Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Marketing and Business Development, Multex.

“During my 7 years at Multex.com, we have grown this company from a startup venture to a publicly traded company with revenues of more than $40 million last year,” Tousignant said. “I look forward to my new challenges and responsibilities at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, but will always look back fondly on the great company we built together at Multex.com.”

In 1999, Tousignant took in $474,615 in salary and bonus, according to the company’s proxy statement.

As a result of the new management structure, operations will be into five functional areas: Distribution, Finance, Product Strategy, Core Technology and Operations. Each of these areas will be headed by a senior executive, each reporting directly to Karaev. They are:

• Amonette, with responsibility for Sales, Marketing and Business Development on a worldwide basis, oversees Distribution. His former position was Senior Vice President of Global Sales.
• John McGovern, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, leads the Finance area. McGovern oversees Finance, Administration, Legal, Human Resources, Investor Relations and Strategic Development.
• John Mahoney, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, will continue to oversee the direction of Multex.com’s Product Strategy.
• Michael Akselrod, Senior Vice President, will continue to be responsible for Core Technology Development, which includes all infrastructure product development at Multex.com.
• Chris Feeney, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, is responsible for Operations. His responsibilities include all internal and external Information Technology functions, as well as Multex.com’s customer support area.