Steve Swanson ’89, CEO of Automated Trading Desk, is the recipient of the first Honors College Distinguished Alumni Award. Swanson was presented with the award on Friday, May 7, 2010 at the Honors College commencement ceremony. This award is the highest honor an alumni can receive from the Honors College and recognizes one person each year for their professional achievements, their contributions to society, and their support of the College of Charleston.
“I fondly remember Steve as a student in an interdisciplinary Honors Colloquium on the History and Philosophy of Science,” says Honors College Dean John Newell. “Since graduating from the College of Charleston he has had an amazing career with the founding of the Automated Trading Desk, and he has so generously given back to the College, establishing several scholarships to support Honors students and serving for the past two years as chair of the College of Charleston Foundation Board.”
Swanson heads ATD, the company that pioneered automated limit order trading of securities, and which trades almost seven percent of the NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchanges’ total volume. Swanson, originally from upstate New York, was a math major, where he met statistician and ATD founder Jim Hawkes. Swanson was ATD’s second employee and took over as CEO in 2001. Swanson has served as a board member of the College’s School of Business and Economics and was chair of the College of Charleston Foundation.
The Distinguished Alumni Award honors alumni who have performed exceptional service for the College of Charleston through cumulative contributions or by extraordinary efforts that advance the Honors College and the College of Charleston. The award was created as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the Honors College and will be given annually at their graduation ceremony.
For more information, contact Kendra Almy at 843.953.7154.
