Vertical Crossings, the New York-based structured-product electronic trading network, has added John "Chip" Montgomery, the former director and national sales manager of high-grade products at SG Cowen. Montgomery left Cowen in 2000 and joined wireless trading application provider SmartServ Online, where he was in charge of global sales and business development. He was unavailable for comment, and a spokesman for SmartServ did not return a call seeking comment. His position is newly created, and he will be responsible for expanding VCross' institutional customer base, either via facilitating telephone-assisted trading, or selling the electronic trading platform itself, according to Steve Beck, executive v.p. Montgomery, who will be a v.p., will be based in New York and report to Pat Downes, president, and Beck.
Prior to joining SG Cowen in 1997, Montgomery was a structured product salesman at UBS Securities, which he joined in1992. Beck says that Montgomery's addition is part of an ongoing plan to build VCross' institutional sales effort.