The Premier Event for Quantitative Investment Thought Leaders
Robert DeWitt
Managing Director, Head of Quantitative Strategies Group Algo, Equities, EMEA Bank of America Merrill LynchRobert De Witt is currently Managing Director, Head of Quantitative Strategies and Data Group for EMEA Equities Execution at BofA Securities. Robert looks after research and development of equities execution algorithms in EMEA where BofA has demonstrated leading market share for the entirety of 2024-2025. Robert brings 20+ years’ experience designing and building execution algorithms between the EMEA and APAC regions. Before joining BofA Securities in 2019, Robert led the Statistical Modelling and Development group for EMEA and APAC at Barclays, also involved in building execution algorithms. Robert studied Computer Science at University of California, San Diego, Financial Engineering at Columbia University and Machine Learning at Imperial College.
Day 1: 14 October
10:10 AM PANEL: Alpha Warfare: What does winning the AI arms race in Quant Finance look like?
In the relentless pursuit of alpha, speed and sophistication are everything — and AI is the new battleground. This panel brings together leaders at the frontier of quant strategy to unpack how machine learning, advanced data pipelines, and next-gen infrastructure are transforming signal discovery and execution. From deep learning breakthroughs to obscure alternative data feeds, we’ll expose what’s working, what’s hype, and what it really takes to stay ahead in the most competitive race in finance.
Proposed panel discussion questions:
1. How are quant teams engineering proprietary edge in a world where everyone has the same models and compute power?
2. What alternative data sets and AI architectures are actually delivering differentiated alpha — and which are dead ends?
3. How do you balance speed, scale, and complexity when deploying ML models across global markets?
4. Is the future of quant strategy defined by human insight augmented by machines, or will autonomous AI eventually outpace us all?
Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Robert.
Download The Latest Agenda
