Optiver Australia founder Rob Keldoulis warns cultural issues may be driven by profit motive

Optiver Australia’s founder and long-time boss Rob Keldoulis said staff are too often seen as ‘expendable inputs’ in high-pressure trading businesses.

Optiver Australia’s founder and long-time boss Rob Keldoulis has warned the firm’s “expendable” approach to employees may be driving a work culture that he acknowledges has been dubbed “toxic” by current and former staff.

But Mr Keldoulis, who founded Optiver Australia in 1995 and ran the business until his exit 2009, said the current cultural problems at the local business may also be present in many of the firm’s competitors.

“I don’t think Optiver is much different to any other financial industry firm,” Mr Keldoulis told The Australian.

“In any business, when profit is the purpose, then everything else is there simply to serve that ­purpose.

“And that’s the problem we’re seeing with shareholders as a powerful interest group in the running of a business.”

Mr Keldoulis, who grew the local operation from a staff of two operating out of the back rooms at the Benevolent Society on Sydney’s Oxford St, and retains a stake in the firm, said management had a “legal responsibility to shareholders and shareholders are after a return on their capital”.

“Employees become a cost centre to minimise and customers a revenue source to maximise,” he said.

“So when dollars are your metric for performance, employees and customers become expendable inputs into that model.”

The latest set of accounts showed Optiver Australia posted a $254m profit in 2021, down from on 2020 when Optiver Australia posted a $589m profit on the back of market volatility.

The Australian has revealed a growing list of former employees have complained of a toxic culture at the Australian operations of Optiver, with allegations ­surfacing about management weaponising the firm’s bonus systems to silence complainants and punish dissent.

Current and former Optiver staff have said the firm’s ranking system, which sees employees awarded a significant percentage of their salary in an end-of-year bonus scheme, has encouraged staff not to raise concerns and empowered decision makers in the business.

Several current and former staff at Optiver Australia said the cultural problems at the firm have worsened in recent years, with several serial offenders remaining employed in powerful positions within the business.

Rob Keldoulis founded Optiver Australia in 1995 and ran the business until his exit 2009. Picture: John Appleyard

In the wake of The Australian’s publication of concerns about the business, Optiver Australia chief executive Wouter Stinnis ordered middle management at the firm to conduct consultation sessions with staff to discuss concerns.

But Optiver Australia has also denied the claims, telling staff in internal emails “we don’t believe this article accurately reflects Optiver and our culture”.

The Australian is aware of several allegations against members of Optiver Australia made by former staff, but the firm has repeatedly stated that an external investigation had cleared them of all claims.

However, Optiver’s former head of human resources, business partnering and operations, Yan Kruger has told The Australian that many of those he suggested investigators speak to were never contacted.

The Australian is aware of several members of the firm who signed nondisclosure agreements with Optiver Australia when they exited, telling The Australian they viewed the deeds as an attempt to stop them disclosing troubling behaviour in the firm.

However, Optiver has denied it has attempted to silence former staff, noting it was only seeking to protect its intellectual property.

Optiver’s Amsterdam business was hit by sexual harassment claims in 2021 and the company had to pay a €422,500 ($705,000) settlement to a British female member of staff.

Mr Keldoulis left Optiver Australia before founding trading firm VivCourt in 2010. The new proprietary trading firm donates some of its profits to charity.

The veteran proprietary trader has been a keen bankroller of political and media groups.

He told The Australian he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Optiver was unique in having former staff claim “their experience was poor and culture shitty”.

“Rarely do people quit a company and then say great things about it. Even VivCourt, god bless our best efforts, has had some poor reviews on Glassdoor,” Mr Keldoulis said.

“There’s not much you can do about it, even if it’s your focus.”

Mr Keldoulis said VivCourt tried to make profit “merely … one indicator of performance”.

“Our real aim is to put the employee first,” he said.

“The paradox is that when you genuinely place employee’s interests ahead of the company’s interest, you get less burn out, more engagement, less errors, more creativity, greater longevity and therefore more productivity. And as an outcome, it has to produce more profit.”

A number of negative reviews of Optiver Australia have been posted on workplace review site Glassdoor.

One review noted the firm provided “free lunch and breakfast” but made several allegations concerning members of Optiver Australia’s management which The Australian has chosen not to publish.

This review was swiftly deleted after being posted.

Mr Keldoulis said Optiver’s bad press “may well be an employee who has been prepared to take it further than perhaps other people who’ve had poor experiences at other financial firms”.

“I would speculate that Optiver is no better or worse than other firms,” he said.

“This complaint has made it into the public sphere but unless we knew the view of every departing employee in every firm in finance, it’s kind of hard to put it into context.”