Obituary
FIA regrets to report that Tim Walton, managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, passed away on 31 July at the age of 47 after a cycling accident. Walton held several senior positions at the bank's securities unit, including chief operating officer for global equity trading and chief operating officer, global equity client solutions. He started his career in equity derivatives trading at JP Morgan before joining the equity derivatives team at Bank of America in 1998.
People News
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has nominated Mairead McGuinness, an Irish member of the European Parliament, to take over financial services policy in Europe. Valdis Dombrovskis, who currently oversees the Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union portfolio, has been appointed to serve as trade commissioner. The appointments were announced on 8 Sept. as part of a reshuffle of responsibilities following the resignation of Phil Hogan, Ireland's European Commissioner, in August. McGuinness, who has been an MEP since 2004, and Dombrovskis will participate in hearings with the relevant European Parliament committees before the European Parliament votes on the appointments in its plenary session this month.
Klaus Löber has won support from the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) to become chairman of the CCP Supervisory Committee, the European Securities and Markets Authority's oversight committee for clearinghouses active in the EU. ECON members also voted in favour of Nicoletta Giusto and Froukelien Wendt as independent members of the committee, which is responsible for preparing draft opinions and decisions in relation to EU and third country CCPs for adoption by ESMA's board of supervisors. The appointments are subject to confirmation in the European Parliament's plenary session later this month.
ESMA has announced that Verena Ross will step down as its executive director at the end of May 2021 after serving the maximum 10 years allowed. ESMA has started the process of finding a successor, who will form part of the senior management team along with the chair. Prior to joining ESMA, Ross held several senior posts at the UK's Financial Services Authority, lastly as director of the international division. She began her career at the Bank of England in 1994, where she worked as an economist and banking supervisor.
Caroline Silver has been appointed to Intercontinental Exchange's board of directors and to the board of directors of ICE Clear Europe. Silver is managing director and partner at Moelis & Company, an independent investment bank, where she specializes in advisory and capital raising for global financial institutions. Silver also serves as the chair of the board of directors of PZ Cussons and serves on the board of directors of BUPA and Meggitt.
TMX Group, the parent company of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Montreal Exchange, has appointed John McKenzie as its chief executive officer. McKenzie has served as the exchange group's interim CEO since former CEO Lou Eccleston stepped down in January 2020. McKenzie has spent 20 years in increasingly senior executive positions at TMX Group, including as chief financial officer. Frank DiLiso, vice president, corporate finance and administration has been named interim CFO until a permanent successor is appointed.
Cboe Global Markets has elected Jennifer McPeek, an industry executive with experience at several asset management companies, as a member of its board of directors. McPeek was chief financial officer of Russell Investments from 2018 to 2019. Before that she was with Janus Henderson Investors and its predecessor company Janus Capital Group, serving as CFO and then as chief operating and strategy officer post-merger in 2017. She currently serves on the board of directors of First American Funds.
US hedge fund Citadel has hired Daniel Liu to lead its first commodities trading team in Asia. Liu will join the commodities business in Singapore in November as a portfolio manager, initially focused on oil and refined products, and will lead a team of four to five people, a spokesperson confirmed. Liu was previously head of oil and liquefied natural gas derivatives trading at Glencore in Asia. Citadel and its market maker subsidiary Citadel Securities are opening a new office in Singapore as part of an expansion into Asia Pacific.
R.J. O’Brien & Associates, one of the largest futures brokerages in the US, has appointed Emre Degirmenci as managing director, EMEA for its London-based affiliate, R.J. O’Brien Limited. Degirmenci joins from Marex Spectron where he was group treasurer. Before that he spent four years at RBS in London and 15 years at Citigroup in New York, Singapore and Istanbul in a variety of treasury and risk management roles.
IHS Markit, the data analytics and information provider, has named Gay Huey Evans, chairman of the board of directors of the London Metal Exchange, as an independent director to its board. In addition to her role at LME, Huey Evans is a non-executive director of Standard Chartered and ConocoPhillips and is a member of the HM Treasury board in the UK. She has previously worked as vice chairman of investment banking and investment management at Barclays Capital, head of governance of Citi Alternative Investments, EMEA, and president of Tribeca Global Management Europe. From 1998 to 2005, she was director of the markets division and head of the capital markets sector at the UK Financial Services Authority and served as ISDA’s chairman from 1994 to 1998.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has appointed Richard Wise as group chief risk officer, effective November this year, reporting to chief executive Charles Li. He will join from Credit Suisse, where he is chief risk officer, Asia Pacific, and will relocate to Hong Kong from Singapore to take up the role. Wise was previously global head of market risk management at J.P. Morgan and chief risk officer for JP Morgan Securities in New York. He started his career in London trading equity derivatives and fixed income products.
Horizon Software, a provider of electronic trading solutions and algorithmic technology, has appointed Emmanuel Faure as head of sales Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Faure has an extensive background in the futures industry in the APAC region and has held management positions at several brokers including Fimat, Newedge, HSBC, and Jefferies. Most recently he served as an independent member of the board of directors at Kenanga Futures, a Malaysian brokerage.
[People News was updated on Sept. 14]
