Eikon chief leaves Thomson Reuters

Brittan, based in New York, was also the Financial & Risk division’s global head of platform.

Previously with Bloomberg and Google, he joined Thomson Reuters in May 2011 and led all product development for F&R including Eikon, the market data desktop launched in September 2010 with much fanfare but sales that failed to meet high expectations of a flagship product that cost $1 billion to develop, and Elektron, the company's global real time data collection and distribution network.

F&R president David Craig praised his “outstanding service” and said he had made a significant contribution to the division’s success.

“His broad leadership role has expanded the turnaround of Eikon and the creation of the F&R Unified Platform Group (UPG), which brought key products and capabilities across F&R into a single function. He has transformed our approach to product management, development and operations, and has played an instrumental role in helping F&R return to growth,” Craig wrote in a note to staff prior to Brittan’s departure.

“Our path ahead is now focused on further innovating and optimising our service offering, and successfully executing our open platform business strategy - which Philip has played a key role in shaping.”

Craig said that from this month F&R was adopting new ways of working. F&R technology development teams would be aligned with the technology organisation, and F&R product management teams would be aligned with chief product and content officer Debra Walton’s function.

“With the F&R CTO role becoming focused specifically on technology development, Philip is moving on from Thomson Reuters to continue his career in a broader leadership and entrepreneurial role,” Craig wrote. He had decided that he would look to invest in new start-up ventures “and Thomson Reuters is currently exploring opportunities with Philip around a potential partnership”. ■