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Meet The Fellows

Recognizing the best minds IN financial technology 

STAC Fellows are an exceptional group of thought leaders, engineers, and technologists whose contributions have meaningfully advanced performance innovation in capital markets. 

Shaping the
industry

Inducted for their outstanding expertise and influence, our Fellows don't just participate in the industry—they shape it. Their insights help challenge assumptions, validate breakthroughs, and push boundaries. 

Since 2014, we've recognized individuals from leading financial institutions who have made extraordinary contributions to the STAC community—from developing benchmark specifications to providing strategic guidance that expands our impact. 

Independent Voices.
Trusted perspectives.
Recognized Excellence.

Current Fellows

The Fellows

Peter Lankford

Peter Lankford founded STAC in 2006 and oversaw its growth until its acquisition in 2024. In 2007 he established the STAC Benchmark Council, bringing together end-user firms and vendors to enable rigorous empirical research on the capabilities of new technologies. By getting competitive financial firms to collaborate on benchmark standards, Peter helped reduce the industry cost of technology evaluation while enabling vendors to deliver better solutions. He also created the STAC Summit, the technology event in global financial centers that is (as one industry insider put it) “like the hot new club everyone wants to get into.” Today, Peter continues to support the organization as a Strategic Advisor. He will always be part of STAC–as a STAC Fellow and as an inspiration for its ongoing mission.

Bob Van Valzah

Fellowship awarded in 2018 for key contributions to STAC-M2 (benchmarks for high-speed messaging stacks) and other latency-oriented STAC Benchmarks.

Eric Powers

Fellowship awarded in 2017 for key contributions to STAC-TS (benchmarks for timestamping and event-capture solutions)

David Lariviere

Fellowship awarded in 2025 for key participation, connections, and energy that have grown the STAC ecosystem in SIGs, working groups, in the Chicago community and beyond.

Neil Horlock

Fellowship awarded in 2017 for key contributions to STAC-TS (benchmarks for timestamping and event capture solutions).

Robert Heuman

Fellowship awarded in 2014 for key contributions to STAC-M2 (benchmarks for high-speed messaging stacks) and for playing an instrumental role in expanding industry involvement in the STAC Benchmark Council.

Lyle Hayhurst

Fellowship awarded in 2014 for key contributions to STAC’s activities related to trade execution and for playing an instrumental role in expanding industry involvement in the STAC Benchmark Council.

Philip Beasley-Harling

Fellowship awarded in 2014 for key contributions to research programs involving STAC-M3 (benchmarks for tick database stacks).

Lars Ericson

Fellowship awarded in 2014 for key contributions to STAC-A2 (benchmarks based on risk computations).

Niall Dalton

Fellowship awarded in 2014 for technology foresight advice and contributions to the expansion of the STAC Benchmark Council.

Richard Croucher

Fellowship awarded in 2014 for key contributions to the research programs relating to network I/O and to STAC-N1 (benchmarks for network stacks).

Stuart Buckland

CTO

Fellowship awarded in 2024 for key contributions to research programs involving STAC-AI LANG6 (benchmarks for LLM Inference stacks).

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