Morgan Stanley’s unpopular ex-chief technology officer is a fintech boss
If you work in technology at Morgan Stanley, you’re probably familiar with Rob Rooney. But the name can also give you a little shudder.
Rooney is the man who oversaw a purge of senior technology staff at Morgan Stanley in 2019. He’s also the man who became global head of technology, operations and resilience at Morgan Stanley in 2017, bringing development jobs under his purview even though he didn’t have technology background. Rooney was originally a salesman with a fixed income.
Now, however, he has changed again. Rooney is a fintech guy. – He has just become CEO of HyperJar, a digital wallet fintech with the intention of helping ‘people plan and navigate their journey from depositing money to spending it, digitizing, capturing and rewarding their intentions.’
Rooney appears to have tentatively moved into fintech. He left Morgan Stanley last year and only joined Hyperjar’s board in October 2022. Founder Mat Megens (himself a former Morgan Stanley VP) appears to have persuaded Rooney to go deeper.
He’s likely to be hiring rather than firing in his new fintech home. Hyperjar added executives from Deliveroo and Zilch last year and hired regularly through 2022.
Rooney joins a list of other Morgan Stanley people in fintech. Stripe and Coinbase each have an ex-Morgan Stanley MD in a leading position. The crypto giant has another Rooney – Ian – who after nine years at the bank joined them as their head of enterprise compliance in 2021. Stripe, meanwhile, acquired Anatol Vizitiu to work in financial and capital markets in 2020; he had been with Morgan Stanley since the turn of the millennium.
Why are people like Rooney in such high demand? A fintech edition of the Financial Technologist conducted a poll on what financial professionals considered a good technology leader, and the number one answer of 45% was being “invested in the team and progress.”
Click here to create a profile on eFinancialCareers. Comment ANONYMOUSLY on articles and make yourself visible to recruiters who are hiring for top jobs in technology and finance.
Have a confidential story, tip or comment to share? Contact: [email protected] in the first instance.
Please join us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by humans. Sometimes these people may be sleeping, or away from their desk, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will—unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)
