About

Ivan Cronyn


Ivan Cronyn

I'm a Principal Engineer and Head of Solutions Technology at Man Group in London. I lead the engineering function that powers Man Solutions' bespoke, multi-asset investment mandates - portfolio optimisation, mandate design, scenario analysis, client reporting - and the tools that help Solutions win new business.

My remit is to make that work at scale, with clean architectures and tight collaboration between engineering, quant, investment, and client-facing teams.

What I focus on

What I do

Background

I grew up in Durban, South Africa, where I started programming as a boy on a Sinclair ZX81 - 1KB of RAM, a membrane keyboard, and BASIC. That was 1981. I've been writing code ever since.

Before Man Group, I spent 25 years in quantitative analysis and financial technology:

At Man Group I also spent several years in risk technology, building front-office risk systems and reporting. Combined with my earlier work on the quant team at GLG Partners, I have built systems across three domains that are usually siloed: quantitative research, risk, and client solutions.

I've worked mostly in C++, C#, Python, and distributed systems, with a particular interest in mathematics, portfolio construction, benchmarking, and optimisation.

What I'm focused on now

AI in production engineering - not the hype, but the reality of integrating AI coding assistants and agentic systems into teams that build financial software. The challenge isn't capability; it's designing systems and workflows where AI output can be trusted.

Beyond work

I live in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, with my wife Penelope. I play guitar. I started baking seriously during the COVID lockdowns and never stopped. I play chess. I'm interested in family genealogy - tracing both the Cronyn line (from Ó Cróinín in Ireland, through South Africa, to England) and Penelope's family.