Coleman Fung
is a successful survivor of both the dot.com and energy trading fever.
As founder and Chief Executive Officer of OpenLink, he has guided this
leading provider of trading, risk management, and operations software
solutions through a decade of extreme business and economic challenges.
Fung launched OpenLink without
outside investment in1992. Within two years, the start-up company got
its first real break from JP Morgan, which was in the market for a comprehensive
trading and risk management system. Impressed with OpenLink's system,
they became a client. "Their selection of OpenLink validated the
architectural integrity of our software and gave use the push we needed
to go forward," recalled Fung. OpenLink began to grow rapidly, and
Fung recapitalized the company in 1998 with a 20 percent equity investment
from Coral Energy.
And the growth has been phenomenal
and consistent. Between 2000 and 2001, the company realized a 96.76 percent
revenue growth. OpenLink now has more than 300 professionals in offices
throughout the world, including London, Houston, Berlin, and Sydney, as
well as New York.
The success of OpenLink has
not gone unnoticed. In a competition sponsored by KPMG LLP, Hofstra University,
and Long Island Business News, OpenLink received the "Entrepreneurial
Spirit Award" for placing third on the "25 Fastest Growing"
list for Long Island's privately held companies in 2002. For the same
year, OpenLink was acknowledged for placing fifth in the "Annual
Long Island Technology Fast 50" list, a program coordinated by Deloitte
& Touche Technology.
The foundation of OpenLink's
product suite is the company's "Adaptive, Dynamic, and Integration-friendly
(ADI)" platform, providing solutions that support the most rigorous
risk management requirements of firms trading in energy, interest rate
derivatives, fixed income securities, foreign exchange, money markets,
metals, and soft commodities.
OpenLink offers several core
products that are fundamentally flexible with an open architecture that
can be adapted to meet industry changes and unique customer requirements.
Endur, the company's core product,
is a fully integrated, front-through-back-office solution for clients
who manage trading and risk management, as well as logistic and operations
functions in the key energy markets, including crude, electricity, natural
gas, refined products, metals, weather, and emissions. Endur(tm) was designed
to cover the entire transaction life cycle in a real time, straight-through-processing
environment.
New Products
Findur(tm) , a complementary
product, is also a fully integrated, front-through-back-office solution
for trading, risk management, and operations, but designed to meet the
needs of various financial markets. Findur(tm) is a comprehensive solution
serving markets in interest rate derivatives, fixed income securities,
foreign exchange, money markets, and other commodities.
OpenLink has also developed
ORIEN, a web-centric product that allows clients to create a wide range
of dynamic e-business services that leverage the core functionality of
Endur and Findur. These external e-business services may include online
exchanges, trading hubs, and other web-based services.
OpenLink has a diverse list
of clients, including Bank for International Settlements, Bank of Canada,
Bank of Scotland Treasury Services, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Dexia
Credit Local, Duke Energy, Dynegy, , EnCana, Equiva Services LLC, ExxonMobil
Gas, Halifax PLC, KeyBank, Manulife Financial, Mirant, Nexen, Regions
Bank, RWE Trading Americas, Shell Trading, Vattenfall Europe Trading,
and WestLB.
Fung's vision has allowed OpenLink
to ride out the recent storms that have battered energy and financial
markets. His strategy has been to develop an adaptive set of service models
to meet the needs of a broad range of clients, from huge trading firms
to niche players around the globe. He has also maintained a unique and
strong focus on product development. OpenLink's development budget is
much higher proportionately than its competitors.
As OpenLink released impressive
third-quarter earnings in December, Fung said that "The softness
we have recently faced within our traditional product lines has presented
us with the opportunity to shift resources and explore previously untapped
markets. Recent strategic staff appointments, ongoing research, and core
development initiatives will allow us to capitalize on what will be a
different trading and risk management software landscape by the end of
2003."
Fung's goal is to have OpenLink
known as a benchmark company with products significantly above the competition
without affecting rapid new development. Under Fung's leadership, OpenLink
is poised to become the first benchmark company in the business -- "being
the best at what we do, with the utmost integrity and business ethics."
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