Rosalyn Wilton was the first woman to be elected to the Board of any major exchange across Europe and the UK when she was appointed a non-executive director of the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) in 1985. She also served as chair of the Eurodollar Options Committee, resulting in the first futures options contract to be brought to the London market. During this time, she was managing director and head of Institutional Financial Futures for Drexel Burnham Lambert in the UK and Europe, working with Richard Sandor, one of the founders of financial futures.
In 1990, Wilton joined Reuters and in 1992, was appointed managing director, Transaction Products with worldwide responsibility for the company’s electronic trading businesses. These included Reuters Dealing products and the GLOBEX system, with Wilton leading the much-publicised negotiations with Chicago and Paris futures exchanges who began listing their products on GLOBEX.
In 1996, Wilton was shortlisted for “Business Woman of the Year”, after being put forward by Reuters in recognition of the significant impact she had made to the company’s revenue and profit contribution and her influence on the advent of electronic trading in the financial markets. In 1998, she was the first woman to be appointed to Reuters’ Executive Committee, making her the most senior woman in the Reuters Group and one of the top 15 executives in the company globally.
In 1999, Wilton left Reuters and continued her career building a financial information and technology company as chief executive and subsequently chair of Ipreo, now part of IHS Markit.
Wilton began her career in 1973 as a money broker, after being awarded a Bachelor of Science degree with honours from the University of London where she read Mathematics and where she is currently deputy chair of the Board of Trustees.
