Financial industry veteran John Shay has been named chief executive officer of American Financial Exchange, the exchange founded by Richard Sandor for US banks to lend and borrow short-term funds. The announcement came shortly after AFX was acquired by 7Ridge, the private equity firm founded by Carsten Kengeter. Shay spent 25 years working at the interdealer broker ICAP, then left in 2007 to help start IDCG, a clearinghouse focused on OTC interest rate swaps. He subsequently worked at Nasdaq as the head of its interest rate trading venue and as a senior advisor at Broadway Technology. Most recently he served as chairman of Acadia, a provider of post-trade services for non-cleared derivatives, from 2019 until it was acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group in December 2022.
John Williamson has been appointed interim chairman of the London Metal Exchange board, taking over from Gay Huey Evans, who stepped down from the board at the end of April and whose departure was announced earlier this year. Williamson served on the board of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the parent company of the LME, from 2008 to 2021 as non-executive director. He was appointed to the LME board as a non-executive director in September 2021. Williamson has worked within the finance and securities industry for more than 40 years and has held senior executive roles with Morgan Stanley, NatWest Securities and Wood Mackenzie & Co.
The London Stock Exchange Group has announced that Satvinder Singh will serve as group head, data and analytics and as a member of the LSEG executive committee, starting on 3 July. Singh will lead LSEG’s global data and analytics businesses and the joint development of new products and services in LSEG’s strategic partnership with Microsoft. He reports to David Schwimmer, CEO of LSEG. LSEG also appointed Ron Lefferts, group head, sales and account management, to the LSEG executive committee. Lefferts joined LSEG in New York in 2021 to lead data and analytics sales and LSEG key account teams. Earlier in his career he worked at IBM for 11 years, focusing on the financial sector.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has hired Patrick Khong from Hang Seng Bank as co-head of data and analytics. Khong is working with fellow co-head Andy Shum and assumes responsibility for data governance and design as well as data and analytics technology initiatives. At Hang Seng Bank, he was a managing director focusing on data analytics. Previously, he spent seven years at HSBC supporting its data governance and transformation.
Exxon Mobil has tapped Tracey Gunnlaugsson to lead its new global trading division, reporting to senior vice president Neil Chapman. The division will bring Exxon’s crude, natural gas, power and petroleum-product desks under one roof by June. Gunnlaugsson has worked for Exxon for more than 30 years in a variety of roles, including trading, pipeline operations and shipping. Currently she is head of human resources.
Deutsche Bank’s global head of foreign exchange Russell LaScala is retiring after 20 years with the bank. His responsibilities have been split between Singapore-based Sameen Farooqui, head of emerging markets at Deutsche Bank, and Chris Leonard, head of rates trading and sales in the US, in addition to their existing roles, a bank spokesperson confirmed. LaScala has worked at Deutsche Bank in New York, Asia, and most recently London. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2003 from Citi. In a related move, David Leigh has been appointed head of European FX at Deutsche Bank. Leigh has worked for Deutsche Bank for over 18 years and will take responsibility for the management of the FX business in Deutsche’s home market.
ICE Futures Europe has appointed Penny Cheung as director of interest rate derivatives, reporting to Matthew Horton, senior director, head of interest rates. Cheung previously worked in listed derivatives sales at RBC Capital Markets. Prior to that she worked in futures and options sales at BGC Partners and held director positions at NatWest Markets and Barclays Investment Bank.
Matt Lisle has joined Wedbush Securities as chief compliance officer of the futures division. Previously, Lisle served as the CCO of ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago. He has also held various senior compliance roles at the New York Stock Exchange and Eurex, was general counsel for the National Grain and Feed Association and was staff attorney with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington DC.
Michael Cugini has joined Wells Fargo as director in its futures and OTC derivatives clearing sales team, based in New York. Cugini was most recently the co-head of Americas for institutional account management at Coinbase. Prior to that, he worked at Credit Suisse for 11 years, most recently as head of global client solutions for the bank's futures business.
Pauline Guérin has joined Société Générale in Brussels as director, group public affairs. Guérin was previously senior policy advisor for financing sustainable growth at the European Banking Federation, investment banking department senior policy advisor for the French Banking Federation, and policy advisor, market structure and intermediaries regulation at Autorité des Marchés Financiers. She rejoins Société Générale after a decade, having worked as a cash equity lawyer for the firm from 2008 to 2013.
The Managed Funds Association, the Washington-based association for hedge funds, has appointed James Martin as managing director, head of UK government affairs. Martin will lead MFA’s first UK office in London and report to Jillien Flores, executive vice president and managing director, head of global government affairs. Martin previously held policy and public affairs roles at the British Chambers of Commerce, JBP Associates, and the Ministry of Justice UK.
Sullivan & Cromwell has appointed Dalia Blass as a partner based in Washington to enhance its investment management regulatory, compliance and enforcement capabilities. Blass is the former director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's investment management division, and recently served as global head of external affairs at BlackRock. She has also worked in private practice in Washington DC, New York and London.
Cboe hired Dan Torrey as director of business development, Cboe Digital. Torrey previously worked in institutional sales for FalconX and as head of institutional sales for both Lukka and Genesis Global Capital. From 2016 to 2019 he was global head of FX e-commerce sales at Northern Trust Corporation. Before that he headed sales at ParFX and was head of sales – Americas at EBS, where he worked for 10 years.
David Pepper has started a new position as general counsel and chief compliance officer at Derivative Path, a cloud-based advisory, technology and trade execution platform provider for FX and interest rate derivatives. Pepper previously worked as director of commodities and swap dealer compliance at Well Fargo. Before that he was special counsel in the market oversight division at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
TS Imagine, a cross-asset provider of trading, portfolio, and risk management services, has made two sales hires in North America. James Muench has joined as sales director with responsibility for the development and growth of TS Imagine’s fixed income business in North America. He most recently led US credit sales at Tradeweb, and prior to that covered investment grade, high yield, treasury and derivatives sales at Barclays Capital. Jake Elkins has joined as sales director and will contribute to TS Imagine’s growth across North America. Elkins previously managed equity sales for large asset managers and sell-side clients at IHS Markit and led sales for risk management and trading analytics solutions at State Street.
