Bennett Mach '25 graduated from Trinity University with a computer science degree and no intention of ever working in finance. Less than 15 months later, he's on the operations floor of the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) in Dallas, helping keep one of the most closely watched new markets in the country running, trade-by-trade.
"My strong interdisciplinary experiences have allowed me to succeed in an industry I never even considered I'd be a part of," Mach says. "I find myself using skills I picked up from classes and experiences well beyond the scope of my degree all the time."
Mach's work as an operations analyst keeps TXSE's infrastructure on track, configuring, deploying, and monitoring the trading platform, the systems that underpin every transaction moving through the exchange.
TXSE launched trading on July 6, 2026, positioning itself as the only national securities exchange built, headquartered, and incorporated in Texas, a third national alternative to the NYSE-Nasdaq duopoly designed to simplify public market access and attract primary listings.
With TXSE continuing to hit major operational milestones post-launch, Mach also develops and improves the internal tools his colleagues rely on to keep the exchange running.
As part of the TechOps (Technical Operations) team, Mach’s role sits at the intersection of computer networking, core development, trading systems, and market regulations. It's a position that demands fluency across the entire exchange ecosystem because Mach and his colleagues are the ones who diagnose potential problems, coordinate across business lines, and either fix them or escalate them to the right people.
"We are on the forefront of navigating any technical or operational issues that might arise," Mach explains. "That's when this (fluency of) knowledge becomes invaluable. We need to either resolve or escalate as quickly as possible."
These split-second decisions on whether to resolve or escalate are the most challenging and most rewarding part of the job. That challenge is one Trinity helped him prepare for.
After his first semester, Mach declared himself a computer science major. He credits Caruth Distinguished Professor of Computer Science Paul Myers, Ph.D., with fundamentally shifting his perspective on the field.
"Before taking his classes, computer science was all about programming to me," Mach says. "His theory classes were what really opened my eyes to how fascinating and broad the field truly is."
Beyond computer science, Trinity's liberal arts curriculum gave Mach the kind of cross-disciplinary problem-solving that TXSE’s TechOps team demands every day.
"My foundations at Trinity certainly set me up for success," Mach reflects.