Official of Swift Joins Network 'Middleware' Firm

Sandra Bleich, an executive at the bank-run Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift, has resigned for a job at a firm specializing in "middleware."

Middleware helps different types of computer systems communicate.

Ms. Bleich, a 10-year veteran of the Brussels-based international messaging network, recently became vice president of New Era of Networks Inc., Englewood, Colo.

Ms. Bleich's new duties include helping the three-year-old New Era - also known as Neon - to sell its software products to banks and investment companies.

"I came to Neon because I wanted to be with a leading-edge software company," said Ms. Bleich, who began her new job Wednesday.

"Software for application integration and network connectivity is the key to helping financial institutions meet the global challenges that lie ahead," she said.

Ms. Bleich, a 1979 graduate of the University of Virginia, was most recently director of product management at Swift.

Before her time there, Ms. Bleich had spent five years as vice president of teleprocessing standards and policy at BankAmerica Corp. She also worked at the American Bankers Association.

Ms. Bleich's first exposure to New Era came during a project in which the firm's software was being programmed to help Swift give better network access to its member banks.

Sitting between various computer systems, New Era's middleware reformats messages so a wide range of computer systems can interact over internal networks, as well as the Internet.

Ms. Bleich said she had recognized that many banks could use New Era's software for other applications.

"One of the problems a lot of financial institutions are experiencing is that they don't have a homogeneous back-office environment," Ms. Bleich said. "You constantly have to adapt all these applications to deal with the complexity of the world outside and also the complexity within the office."

Outside research supports her assertion. The Gartner Group has said as much as 40% of all computer programming work, including that at banks, is for maintaining systems that exchange information between data bases.

New Era officials said their software could be particularly useful in applications such as linking the systems used by treasury employees for securities management.

Such systems typically must interact with myriad data bases from outside vendors, each of which might employ a different interface standard.

New Era was founded by George F. Adam, former chief information officer and a partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

As demand for its products heats up, the company is growing quickly. It added 80 employees last year, bringing its staff to 120.

Most of New Era's current business is with Wall Street firms, but it would like to expand its client list to include commercial banks and health care and telecommunications companies.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER