Michael Schaftel has been promoted to head of distribution channels for U.S. institutional derivatives sales trading at Morgan Stanley Electronic Trading (MSET). Since MSET is working to ensure seamless coverage across its entire equity products portfolio, Schaftel also will retain his previous responsibilities as head of the firm's America core sales trading team.

Dayle Scher has joined TowerGroup's investment management research service as a senior analyst. Scher will be charged with analyzing back-office processes, messaging standards and technologies impacting the investment management arena. She previously was VP of global investment support at MFS Investment Management in Boston.

BNY ConvergEx Announces Asia Head

BNY ConvergEx appointed Luis Camacho as head of ConvergEx Global Markets Asia. Camacho, who will be based in Hong Kong, will manage all aspects of the business in the Asia Pacific region, including sales and trading, client development, and trading technology infrastructure. He previously was an SVP for ConvergEx Global Markets in New York.

Turquoise Taps Gibbs

Peter Gibbs joined Turquoise, the equities trading facility that is gearing up for the launch of its European trading facility in September, as non-executive chairman of the board of directors. Gibbs currently is chairman of trustees of the Merrill Lynch pension fund. He also has held positions at Mercury Asset Management and Merrill Lynch Investment Management, where he served as cohead of equities and CIO for the firm's international business.

Pragma Grows Quant Group

Pragma Financial Systems hired Eran Fishler as VP of quantitative engineering. Fishler will develop short-term risk models and algorithms for TradeEngine, Pragma's trading platform. Fishler previously was a research analyst at Hite Capital Management.