MarketAxess Moves: Chris's journey from London to Singapore

Chris Chappell works on the global Open Trading desk at MarketAxess, helping clients and dealers with anything related to our flagship product from facilitating trades to resolving any trade issues that may arise. Prior to joining MarketAxess in 2014, Chris worked on the sell side for investment banks in the credit markets. Funny enough, he was previously a client of MarketAxess! When Chris heard that we were launching Open Trading, he jumped at the chance to be a part of transforming the industry and growing an innovative product that would address many of the sell-side issues he’d experienced firsthand working in banking.

Sounds great, right?  But you may be wondering, in a world where an average TikTok post has a 30-minute lifespan and the gig economy is exploding, how has working at MarketAxess remained compelling to Chris for the past 8 years?  First and foremost, it’s the collaborative culture, which he describes as “the best of the banking world meets the best of the tech world.” And as it turns out, for both MarketAxess and for Chris’s career, the journey to modernize the bond market infrastructure has offered no shortage of plot twists.

What that looks like most recently for Chris is accepting an internal role that required relocating to Singapore from London in February 2022. Faced with the fatigue that was common to many of us coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chris was in the market for a new challenge and began to explore other internal opportunities. Though he hadn’t necessarily been looking to make a geographic move, the Singapore role aligned well with Chris’s skill set and he felt certain it would offer him the new perspective he was after.

At MarketAxess, we believe in embracing adventure, and that’s exactly what Chris did. Having spent the majority of his career in Europe, Chris tackled a steep learning curve in the transition to working within Asian markets, where the market structure, investor needs and cultural nuances call for a different approach than he has relied on in the past. It has been challenging and rewarding for him to help shape the way the company markets and sells Open Trading to Asian investors.

Moving to a country where you don’t speak the language may sound intimidating, but Chris found it relatively easy to adapt given the tight-knit community of expats in Singapore and the support he received from his manager, team, and HR to ensure a smooth transition.  The biggest downside so far? “In Singapore, we can’t get a good pint of Guinness.”

Although it was difficult to leave behind his friends, colleagues, and local pub fare in London, the move has led Chris to new friends, new colleagues, and new experiences. Professionally, he says, “it’s given me the opportunity to develop, expand my knowledge, and learn a lot more about MarketAxess and the financial markets.” It wasn’t until he started looking that Chris realized how many opportunities MarketAxess offers for employees to grow and energize their careers in unexpected ways. If he could offer advice to his colleagues, it would be to “keep your eyes open for any opportunities, embrace anything that comes along, and go for it.” Had he not, he may have missed the chance to experience one of the very best perks of life in Singapore: “I can go from my desk to a beach in Thailand within three hours.”

Want to work with Chris in Singapore? Check out our open roles here.