Bina Kalola is Managing Director and head of Global Strategic Direct Investments for Global Banking and Markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In this role she is responsible for managing the global strategic investments portfolio, including identifying critical opportunities such as cutting edge financial technology that would provide a competitive advantage and opportunities to evolve, or address changes in, trading market structure across the globe (e.g., investments in BATS Global Markets, Chi-X Europe, SBI Japannext, Markit Partners, and Tradeweb), and driving investments across strategic areas of focus. She collaborates with senior management to determine growth opportunities, competitive positioning and cost-saving opportunities across the sales, trading and research platform through both strategic investments in thirdparties and mergers and acquisitions. She further has responsibility for the P&L and return on equity of the investment portfolio, and is actively engaged on several boards of the portfolio companies, including serving as Chairperson of the Nominating Committee and Product Committee of the Boards of BATS Global Markets and Chi-X Global, respectively.

Prior to this role, Ms. Kalola was a Director and Assistant General Counsel at Merrill Lynch, where she was responsible for the execution and management of the firm’s international and domestic proprietary acquisitions and divestitures across global business areas. She was also the lead attorney on structuring and negotiating domestic and international joint ventures aimed at growing both the institutional and wealth management businesses in Asia, including the Mitsubishi UFJ Merrill Lynch wealth management joint venture in Japan, the DSP Merrill Lynch joint venture in India, and several strategic alliances globally.

Ms. Kalola was also active covering the Audit Committee and Finance Committee of the Board of Directors at Merrill Lynch, working with Corporate Audit on auditor independence oversight, analysis of rules and authoring policies and procedures related to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. She was one of three attorneys selected globally to participate in the 2004 Global Management Development Program and was also selected to participate in the Management 2005 Laureate Program. She is also actively involved on the executive committee of the Global Banking & Markets Women’s Leadership Council, several industry groups and head of diversity recruiting at the graduate and undergraduate schools at Columbia University.

Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Ms. Kalola co-founded NetProphets, a start-up company that incubates proprietary and client business plans in the United States, Australia and India. NetProphets was funded by the founders and angel investors to both incubate an on-line marketing site for a Fortune 500 food and beverage company, as well as provide services to clients requiring expertise in marketing strategy and website development. She was involved in all aspects of the company’s business development, including capital raising, and sales efforts.

Before that, she practiced Corporate Law at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and was an analyst in the Financial Division at Salomon Brothers.

Ms. Kalola holds a J.D. from Georgetown University and a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University.