CANADA FINANCE-Alpha CEO Schmitt rolls up his sleeves

(This story is part of a special Reuters News package highlighting Canada's financial sector. For a complete listing of stories, click on [ID:nN19445229].)

By Jennifer Kwan

TORONTO, June 24 (Reuters) - Jos Schmitt is the new kid on a very old Canadian block, promising to shake up the stodgy world of stock trading and win a 20 percent market share, by dint of hard work, good technology and a little bit of luck.

Schmitt, 46, is chief executive of the small Alpha Trading Systems and one of a handful of upstarts that are challenging TMX Group Inc (X.TO), operator of the senior Toronto Stock Exchange and the smaller-cap TSX Venture Exchange.

A former consultant on whether Alpha was viable in the first place, his job now involves proving that it is.

"I like to move and I like to start things, do new things in new places in new environments. There's nothing like a good challenge to really get me going," Schmitt said in an interview at the company's sleek, downtown Toronto office.

"It comes with a strong appetite for work."

As of May, Alpha held a market share of around 6 percent in Canada, according to data from self-regulatory group Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. That means it handled trades worth some C$8 billion for the month.

The company, which now employs about 35 people, launched in early November with much hullabaloo. Its backers include the dealer arms of Canada's big banks, and that gave it a shot at becoming a major force in a market that is still dominated by the TMX.

The TMX has a market share of nearly 90 percent. Other players include Pure Trading, operated by CNSX Markets Inc, and Chi-X Canada, owned by Nomura Holdings Inc's (8604.T) Instinet, as well as "dark pools" Liquidnet and Match Now.

Schmitt, who hails from the Netherlands and speaks four languages, arrived in Canada in the mid-2000s after spending much of his career overseas, largely in the field of market structure.

That included a period in Belgium where he was hired as an insider to advise potential backers on the viability of a derivatives and clearing house venture, and then -- just as he did in Canada -- became its chief executive.

Peppering the conversation with words like "create", "transform" and "adapt" -- as well as the phrase "touch wood" -- he admitted that Bay Street, Canada's financial center, likely viewed him as a newcomer.

"I was an unknown quantity to many people," he said, but noted he's a quick study and has learned the nuances of the Canadian trading landscape.

Market observers described him as perhaps one of the hardest working men on Bay Street -- one characterized him as a "workaholic" -- as he muscles Alpha into the trading landscape.

"Know your facts to bring knowledge and expertise to the table. Respect the people you talk with," he said of reaching out to the financial services community.

Schmitt relishes the idea he is at the epicenter of the transformation in the Canadian marketplace and intends to tackle that challenge by adhering to an old motto:

"Whatever you ask your people to do, you have to be willing to do it or, I would even say, you have to be willing to do more," he said. "So that there's never that perception of 'it's easy for him'."

Schmitt's intensity is demonstrated as the interview is interrupted by cheers outside his office.

"Behind me, they're getting excited. We must've hit another record. Do you mind if I have a look?," he said, as he glanced to the television and computer screens picturing pie charts of Canada's trading venues and their market share percentages.

"Yeah, we did," noting a record in a trade statistics. "That's pretty good." ($1=$1.15 Canadian) (Editing by Janet Guttsman)