Interview  |  AUG 2000

Philip Berber Of CyBerCorp by John Sweeney

Brokerages: The Next Generation Philip Berber Of CyBerCorp Before Philip Berber formed CyBerCorp, a next-generation, electronic brokerage group providing real-time, direct-access trading, and Internet execution technology, he had already made a name for himself as the founder of Financia. Financia was notable for being the first company in Europe to apply artificial intelligence, expert systems, and technical analysis to market prediction, stock selection, and timing. Berber, a native of Ireland, sold CyBerCorp to top US online broker Charles Schwab Co. in March 2000. What's next for him? To find out, Interim Editor John Sweeney spoke with Berber via telephone on May 1, 2000. How did you get started with CyBerCorp? I was really looking for my next adventure after I sold Financia, and I got introduced in the very early days to a daytrading room in Houston at the end of 1995. I saw the technologies that these traders were using, and given my background, I could see how those technologies would evolve. That's when I chose to start CyBerCorp and to design, develop, and deliver the next generation of directaccess electronic trading technologies, which I made available over the Internet in 1997. And that was key, wasn't it? The advent of the Internet provided the communications structure that would make direct access work. The Internet meant that these technologies would no longer be restricted to the bricks-and-mortar trading rooms that had evolved in the US. The Internet meant that there were no limitations in terms of making the information and execution technology available to any qualified trader and investor throughout the world.

by John Sweeney