Obituary
Mark Thornberry, a long-time derivatives trading software professional, has sadly died at the age of 59 from liver cancer. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Thornberry worked at several technology companies including TIBCO Software, StreamBase, RTS Realtime Systems, Orc Software and Trading Technologies. He was a highly regarded ultra-runner and a multiple finisher of the 145-mile Grand Union Canal Race. Even though he was diagnosed several years ago, Thornberry continued to do what he loved to raise money and awareness for liver cancer research.
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Nikhil Rathi, the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, has been appointed as the next head of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority. Rathi will begin his five-year term in the autumn, succeeding Christopher Woolard who has acted as interim chief executive at the FCA since Andrew Bailey stepped down to join the Bank of England as governor in March 2020. Rathi will play a key role in helping the UK's financial sector navigate its departure from the European Union at the end of the year. Prior to joining the London Stock Exchange in 2014, Rathi was director of the financial services group at HM Treasury for five years, leading its work on the UK’s EU and international financial services interests. He also served as private secretary to prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown between 2005 and 2008.
The London Stock Exchange Group has appointed Denzil Jenkins, global head of compliance. to serve as interim CEO of the London Stock Exchange following the appointment of Rathi at the FCA.
Deutsche Börse Group has reorganized its management structure, moving its cash market division into its trading and clearing division headed by Thomas Book. The division includes Eurex, Eurex Clearing, the foreign exchange trading platform 360T and the energy and commodity business of EEX Group.
Book has stepped down from his role as chief executive of Eurex Frankfurt AG, the group's derivatives exchange. Michael Peters, who has been deputy CEO of Eurex since February 2016, has been named Eurex's new CEO. Book will continue as member of the management board of Eurex Deutschland and has taken on the additional role of chairman of the management board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The cash market division was previously the responsibility of Hauke Stars, who left Deutsche Börse on 30 June.
The promotion of Book and Peters has resulted in additional executive board moves: Randolf Roth will take over responsibility for equity and index derivatives, as well as client service trading and clearing. Jonas Ullmann will join the executive board as chief operating officer, taking over trading design and delivery. His responsibilities will include the development of trading functionalities and ongoing trading operations. In addition, Jens Janka will join the executive board of Eurex Clearing as COO with responsibility for clearing design and delivery. He succeeds Heike Eckert, who has taken over the newly created human resources and compliance executive board division at Deutsche Börse.
Intercontinental Exchange has confirmed that Hester Serafini will take on the role of president of ICE Clear Europe permanently, after leading the London-based clearing house on an interim basis since February when Finbarr Hutcheson stepped down. Serafini was previously president and chief operating officer of ICE Clear U.S., a role she had held since January 2017. ICE said that Kevin McClear, chief risk officer, has replaced Serafini as president of ICE Clear U.S., while Joanne Rowe, previously the corporate risk officer for ICE’s North American exchanges, succeeded McClear as ICE’s corporate risk officer. ICE also appointed Michael Dundon as head of global credit risk, based in Chicago. He previously was head of central counterparty clearing and risk management at Wells Fargo Securities.
Marex Spectron has appointed Ram Vittal as CEO, North America, reporting to Ian Lowitt, group CEO. Vittal is based in New York and oversees Chicago-based Rosenthal Collins Group and other Marex Spectron North America metals, energy and agricultural brokerage teams in New York, Houston, Connecticut and Calgary. Vittal joined from JPMorgan Chase, where he was managing director and head of treasury services franchise client management. Previously, he was a managing director at Goldman Sachs, holding several senior roles in the investment management and investment banking businesses. Vittal also led the establishment of Goldman’s asset management business in India.
The Taiwan Futures Exchange has announced the election of Tzu-Hsin Wu as its new chairman. Prior to taking this role, Wu served as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance, where he engaged in a series of financial policies and tax reforms. Wu will lead the Taifex team to complement existing product suites, align with international norms and further enhance market integrity, the exchange said.
Jerome Kemp, global head of futures, clearing and collateral at Citi, has announced his retirement after nine years with the bank and will step down as chair of FIA's board of directors. Nicholas Rustad, global head of clearing at JPMorgan, will become acting chair of FIA until the annual elections at FIA’s board meeting next spring. Kemp's retirement will bring his 36-year career in the futures industry to a close. Prior to joining Citi in 2011, Kemp was global co-head of futures and options and OTC clearing at JP Morgan, where he was instrumental in transforming its on-exchange futures and options business into a broader group incorporating OTC derivatives and clearing services.
OCC, the equity derivatives clearing organization, has promoted Jennifer Baum, first vice president, regulatory compliance, to senior vice president and chief compliance officer. Baum replaces Joe Adamczyk, who has left OCC to pursue another opportunity. She will serve as a member of OCC’s management committee.
First Derivatives has appointed David Collins as managing director, managed services and consulting. He will have global responsibility for all aspects of managed services and consulting operations, reporting directly to the group's chief executive, Seamus Keating. Collins was most recently head of financial services for the UK and North America at GFT Group. He began his career trading derivatives with DLJ, BNP Paribas and Standard Bank before building the London and New York trading system business for City Practitioners and joining the executive team of SuperDerivatives.
Post-trade and derivatives processing firm Torstone Technology has hired David Pearson for its product team in London. Pearson joins from Genesis Global, where he was responsible for post-trade workflow solutions. Prior to that, he spent 25 years at Fidessa, initially working with sell-side brokers and dealers to build and implement front and middle-office workflow solutions for equities and then with buy-side firms on exchange-traded derivatives and repo.
