Mark Gorton
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Mark Gorton is the creator of LimeWire, a peer-to-peer file sharing client for the Java Platform, and chief executive of the Lime Group. Lime Group, based in New York, owns LimeWire as well as Lime Brokerage LLC (a stock brokerage), Tower Research Capital LLC (a hedge fund), and LimeMedical LLC (a medical software company).
Gorton is well know in New York City as an active supporter of projects promoting green lifestyle issues especially those having to do with transportation. According to an article in the February 7, 2007 New York Observer, Gorton is the single largest supporter of Transportation Alternatives, the New York City-based advocacy group for pedestrians, cyclists, and green transportation policy. In 1999 he founded The Open Planning Project or (TOPP), a non-profit organization to promote "thoughtful urban planning and encourage increased public participation via open source technology development to promote a vision for New York." TOPP's first major project was GeoServer, a collaborative open source project attracting developers from around the world that claims users in over 75 countries. The stated purpose is to create a backend infrastructure for open geographic information sharing to "imagine new urban environments and enabling group collaborations to enact the new visions."
In 2005 Gorton backed The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign or NYSCR. Two of the best known project of NYSCR are Streetsblog and Streetfilms.
Streetsblog is written and edited by professional journalist and interactive media producer Aaron Naparstek.Streetfilms is a popular showcase for videos about green transportation activities around the world that Gorton says came about as a result of his "bicycling adventures around New York City that have been extensive and all but deadly in recent years." Most of Streetfilm's videos are shot and produced by Clarence Eckerson, who, according to the site, "shoots all video by foot, bike or using mass transit and has never owned a driver’s license."
The financial engine behind many of Gorton's business and civic interests is Tower Research Capital LLC, a financial services firm Gorton owns that he started in 1988, following a 4 1/2 year stint in the proprietary trading department of Credit Suisse First Boston (now Credit Suisse). At Credit Suisse Gorton traded stocks and built sophisticated hedging tools used to analyze markets. Tower evolved these models and specializes in quantitative trading and investment strategies based on proprietary trading algorithms using statistical methodology to identify non-random patterns in the stock markets. Buying and selling is done through an automated trade execution infrastructure, with many of trades placed through another affiliate, Lime Brokerage LLC.
Tower is staffed by people proficient in mathematics, computer programming, physics, law, economics, engineering, and finance. While Gorton is highly proficient in math and programing, he credits much of Tower's success to his colleague, Managing Director John Martello, with whom he also worked at Credit Suisse First Boston. Martello, according to the Tower website, developed many of the quantitative financial trading models used at the firm. Tower Financial shares offices with the other divisions of the Lime Group.
Gorton holds a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Yale University, a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard University. He began his career as an electrical engineer for Martin Marietta (now part of Lockheed Martin), and, following his interests in business entered the world of fixed-income trading at Credit Suisse First Boston prior to going out on his own and launching the Lime Group of companies.
