DirectBooks Appoints Phil Armstrong as New Board Chair - Announces Addition of Senior Advisors

NEW YORK and LONDON, March 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- DirectBooks, the global leader in primary markets communications, announced today that Phil Armstrong, a retired partner and former Global Head of Operations at Goldman Sachs, has been appointed as its new independent Chair of the Board of Directors, replacing Matt Miller who has transitioned from Board Chair to Senior Advisor. In addition to Matt Miller, DirectBooks welcomes 3 new Senior Advisors: Peter Aherne, John Robinson, and Andrew Scott.

"I want to thank Matt for his invaluable service to our Board of Directors as our Chair," said DirectBooks CEO, Richard Kerschner. "Matt has been a great partner since the start of our journey together on the DirectBooks Board in 2019. Matt's rare combination of expertise in fixed income, consortium governance, risk management, and startups was invaluable to us as we grew from pre-launch startup to a global market leader in primary markets communications."

"We are excited to welcome Phil Armstrong to the DirectBooks Board of Directors as our new Independent Board Chair. I have known Phil for many years, and have most recently worked closely with him in his role as a senior advisor to DirectBooks," said Mr. Kerschner. "I look forward to partnering with Phil in his new Board role and benefiting from his expertise in evolving and scaling global businesses as we take DirectBooks to new heights."

The new Senior Advisors, Peter Aherne, John Robinson, and Andrew Scott, will work with our CEO and leadership team on new growth initiatives.

Peter Aherne recently retired from Citi following a multi-decade career leading major capital markets franchises and overseeing billion-dollar capital-raising initiatives across sectors and geographies. He was a founding Board member of DirectBooks and was instrumental in shaping its governance, business model, and technology strategy.

John Robinson spent his entire 35-year investment banking career at Morgan Stanley, where he was a managing director in the fixed income division, spanning US, European and Emerging Markets sales and trading. He was most recently the CEO of Neptune Networks, the European fixed income data, and network consortium, and led its 2025 sale to TP-ICAP.

Andrew Scott was most recently a Managing Director and Head of Innovation Strategy for the Global Capital Markets group at Bank of America. He has 25 years of financial industry experience across capital markets, bond trading, derivatives, and technology startups. At BofA, he was responsible for overhauling the entire primary issuance technology platform from origination through order taking, including syndication and settlement across the bank's equity, investment grade, and leveraged finance businesses.

Since the DirectBooks platform went live in late 2020, our underwriter community has grown to 47 underwriters covering fixed income primary issuance across Investment Grade, Emerging Markets, Sovereigns, Supranationals and Agencies, and High Yield. The institutional investor community now reaches over 1,000 accounts ranging from the largest asset managers, pensions funds, and insurance companies to family offices, wealth management, and sovereign entities.

More about New DirectBooks Board Chair Phil Armstrong

Phil Armstrong is a retired Goldman Sachs partner with over 35 years of experience in Operations leadership, strategic transformation, and risk management. While at Goldman, Phil was the Global Head of Operations leading 6,000+ professionals across all products and geographies, including equity and debt primary market activities. His prior roles included Global Head of Operations Strategy and Transformation, Global Head of Derivatives and FX Operations, Global Head of Fixed Income Operations, and European Head of Equity Operations. Phil became managing director in 2001 and partner in 2008 before retiring in 2021.

As division head, Phil led the engagement with the revenue divisions and control side functions to scale businesses, ensure a strong risk culture, and deliver on the firm's strategic growth opportunities. He was also a member of several key committees, including the Enterprise Risk Committee, Technology Risk Committee, and the Conduct and Operational Risk Committee. Phil also chaired the Americas New Activities Committee, leading the review of all new products in the region.

Phil has extensive board experience, having served for 8 years on the board of CLS Group, where he was Vice Chair and Chair of the Board Strategy Committee and Technology Committee. During this period Phil played a leading role, engaging with global regulators and adapting the organization to their designation as a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility.

About DirectBooks

DirectBooks leverages its technology expertise and market knowledge to optimize global financing markets. We are simplifying the primary issuance process for fixed income by streamlining communications workflows for underwriters and institutional investors. DirectBooks ownership consists of Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Mizuho, Royal Bank of Canada, and Wells Fargo. A complete list of participating global underwriters can be found on our website. For additional information, please visit us: www.DirectBooks.com.

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