Obituaries
Philip McBride Johnson, a former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and futures law pioneer, has passed away at the age of 83. Johnson was a prominent member of the US derivatives bar for more than four decades. Early in his career, he helped draft key provisions of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974 that made the CFTC the sole regulator of the US futures industry.
In 1981, while serving as CFTC chairman, he entered into what became known as the Shad-Johnson Accord, a landmark agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that established a clear demarcation of the two agencies’ jurisdiction over equity derivatives and allowed futures on broad-based stock indices to trade without entanglement in jurisdictional disputes.
Johnson later headed the commodities, futures and derivatives products practice group at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Over the course of his career his work has helped build some of the most important elements of the legal framework for the futures markets.
"Phil was a wonderful mentor to a generation of lawyers and market professionals who continue to carry his knowledge and passion for our industry forward," said FIA President and CEO Walt Lukken. In 2009, FIA honored Johnson by inducting him into the Futures Industry Hall of Fame.
Wayne Luthringshausen, one of the founders of the US listed options market, has passed away at the age of 77. Luthringshausen began his career in the securities and futures industry in New Orleans, first with Kohlmeyer & Company and then with Viguerie, Hayne & Chaffe. In 1970, he joined the Chicago Board of Trade and assumed an active role in the development of the first central marketplace for the trading of listed options contracts, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, working with Joseph Sullivan, CBOE’s first CEO and president.
Luthringshausen led the project to launch the Chicago Board Options Exchange Clearing Corporation and was appointed its president and CEO in 1973. Shortly after, he was instrumental in restructuring the CBOECC to create a clearinghouse for the entire US listed options market, and the CBOECC became known as the Options Clearing Corporation. He led OCC as chairman and CEO for forty years until his retirement in 2013.
During that time, he oversaw many new initiatives to make the options clearing process more efficient and effective and championed educational efforts to help investors understand the utility and benefits of options. In 2002, in recognition for his contributions to the options industry, Luthringshausen became the first recipient of the Options Industry Appreciation Award, which he later insisted be renamed the Joseph W. Sullivan Options Industry Achievement Award. In 2015, FIA honored Luthringshausen in the Futures Industry Hall of Fame.
FIA regrets to report that Michael Dundon, head of global credit risk at Intercontinental Exchange, has passed away at 58. Dundon's prior roles included head of central counterparty clearing and risk management at Wells Fargo Securities. He was also chief risk officer of International Derivatives Clearing Group and held other senior risk management positions at The Clearing Corporation, MF Global, Carr Futures, AIB Capital Markets, and Banque Indosuez.
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CoinFund, a New York-based fund platform focused on investments in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, has hired Chris Perkins as managing partner and president. Perkins was most recently global co-head of Citi's futures, clearing and foreign exchange prime brokerage businesses, a role he assumed with co-head Sabrina Wilson in October last year after the head of those businesses, Jerome Kemp, retired. At CoinFund, Perkins will work to help narrow the divide between crypto investing and traditional equities, CoinFund said in a statement. Perkins joined Citi in 2008 and founded its global OTC clearing business. Prior to that he ran the derivatives intermediation business at Lehman Brothers. Earlier in his career, he served as a captain in the US Marine Corps.
George Simonetti, Wells Fargo’s long-time head of markets clearing and futures execution retired this summer after a 27-year career at the bank. Simonetti was responsible for overseeing the clearing of all OTC and listed derivative products traded by Wells Fargo and its capital markets customers along with the futures execution desk. During his career at the bank, he held several positions, including director and senior vice president of treasury operations and head of capital markets operations. Prior to Wells Fargo, Simonetti spent seven years at Lehman Brothers in roles supporting securities operations, fixed income middle office, commodity derivatives and currency risk management. Jeff Gore has been appointed interim head of markets clearing and futures execution, a Wells spokesperson said.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has appointed John Buckley as head of exchange operations and transformation. Buckley will be responsible for all HKEX exchange operations and will lead the strategic development and transformation of this part of the business as well as efforts on modernising systems and operations. He will join in December and report to Calvin Tai, HKEX's president and chief operating officer. Buckley previously worked at Citadel, where he was chief operating officer, Asia for three years. Previously, he spent seven years with JP Morgan, and held several senior positions including chief risk officer, Asia Pacific; chief financial officer, Asia Pacific; and interim senior country officer, Singapore.
Russell Beattie has joined MSCI in Hong Kong as listed derivative index product specialist, Asia Pacific. He previously worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he was head of Asia Pacific, futures and options and OTC clearing. Beattie, a board member and vice president of FIA Japan and previously a regional advisory board member of FIA Asia, joined BAML Hong Kong in 2015. Prior to this he was managing director, head of prime services Japan and head of agency derivatives services distribution, Asia Pacific for Barclays based in Tokyo. He also held senior manager positions at Deutsche Bank and HSBC in Hong Kong.
Shuai-Ling Chong has been appointed by Bank of America as head of Asia Pacific futures and options, OTC clearing and FXPB, succeeding Beattie. She was previously director, Asia Pacific marketing, futures and options and OTC clearing at the bank. Prior to joining BAML in 2013, she worked at JP Morgan and Bloomberg in senior marketing and sales roles.
Brian Oliver has joined DTCC as head of business development for digital assets, reporting to Jennifer Peve, DTCC’s global head of strategy and business development. Prior to joining DTCC, Oliver spent 10 months at IHS Markit as managing director, global sales and account management, and nearly five years at Citadel Securities as head of fixed income, currencies and commodities sales and relationship management for Europe and Asia. Prior to that he was the EMEA head of derivatives clearing and collateral management sales at JP Morgan and worked at CME Group as managing director, OTC new business initiatives.
Brian Quintenz, who stepped down from his role as commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission at the end of August, has joined Andreessen Horowitz, the California-based venture capital firm, as an advisory partner in its crypto team. Quintenz joins existing advisors Bill Hinman, the former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, and Brent McIntosh, former Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Quintenz was sworn in as a CFTC commissioner in August 2017 and stayed in the role more than a year after his official term ended in April 2020.
Gary Gensler, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, has appointed Barbara Roper to serve as one of his senior advisers focused on policy issues, broker-dealer oversight, investment-adviser oversight, and examinations. Roper was previously director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, where she worked for 35 years. Roper was named in Barron's list of 100 most influential women in US finance earlier this year.
The SEC's Division of Enforcement chief counsel Joe Brenner has retired. Brenner had led the office of chief counsel since January 2011. The SEC has appointed Sanjay Wadhwa as deputy director of the Division of Enforcement. Wadhwa most recently served as the senior associate director of the Division of Enforcement in the SEC's New York Regional Office.
Jay Clayton, the former chair of the SEC, has been appointed to the advisory board of crypto infrastructure provider Fireblocks. The digital asset custody and settlement firm targets crypto-native exchanges, custodians, banks, trading and lending desks and hedge funds as its clients. Clayton, who stepped down from his role at the SEC in December, is also on the board of Apollo Global Management as an independent director and an adviser to One River Digital Asset Management.
Brett Redfearn, the former director of the SEC's division of trading and markets, has resigned from his position at Coinbase Global, the cryptocurrency exchange, after four months on the job. Redfearn had been head of Coinbase’s capital markets group. Coinbase reportedly decided to shift its priorities away from digital asset securities, leading to Redfearn’s departure.
BaFin, the German financial supervisory authority, has promoted Thorsten Pötzsch to the position of chief executive director for securities supervision and asset management. Pötzsch has been acting director of the division since Elisabeth Roegele left in the spring. Pötzsch joined BaFin in 2018 as chief executive director of resolution. Before that he served as a member of the management committee at the Federal Agency for Financial Market Stabilisation and as head of directorate at the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has appointed Darian McBain as chief sustainability officer and head of its new Sustainability Group, with effect from 1 October. The group will steer sustainability efforts across MAS and coordinate its green finance and sustainability agenda. She will report to Ho Hern Shin, deputy managing director, financial supervision, and Leong Sing Chiong, deputy managing director, markets and development. McBain was most recently the chief sustainability officer at the Thai Union Group, a seafood supplier conglomerate.
The London Metal Exchange has appointed Gavin Prentice as chairman of the user committee and member of the special committee, which deals with LME’s rules and regulations. Prentice has more than 30 years of experience in commodities trading, most recently as managing director at Marex. He served as an LME board member from 2009-2012 and has chaired the LME’s aluminium and nickel committees for more than a decade. Following his new appointments, he will step down as chairman of the aluminium committee. On the user committee he replaces Gonzalo Cuadra, who has been chairman for the last eight years.
Former CME Group senior director Ariel Hantin has joined PwC as a senior manager in its consulting solutions group, where she is responsible for providing expertise on the end-to-end lifecycle of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures from strategy and evaluation through planning and execution. Hantin had a 20-year career at CME Group and was most recently senior director, corporate development. Before this she was director, business development. Prior to joining CME in 2001, Hantin worked at Dexia in Paris in a sales and marketing role.
Qomply, a provider of transaction reporting and record keeping technology services to address EU and UK regulation, has appointed David Peniket, former president of ICE Futures Europe, to its advisory team. Peniket worked at ICE Futures Europe for 18 years, including 11 years as president. Before joining ICE, he was a financial management consultant at KPMG. Since retiring in 2017, Peniket has continued his service to ICE, where he serves as chair of ICE Futures US and a member of the ICE LIBOR Oversight Committee.
Former FIA head of Europe Simon Puleston Jones has been appointed to the role of chief executive officer of London-based Climate Solutions, a global climate-focused capital raising and strategic consultancy business. Puleston Jones launched Climate Solutions with chief operating officer Bob MacDonald, the former head of Wood Group's Special Technical Solutions business, and Paul Camp, Climate Solutions’ head of transactions who launched the world’s first climate bond in 2014.
San Francisco Open Exchange (SFOX), a digital assets prime broker, has hired former Goldman Sachs executive John Mannino as director of compliance. Most recently, Mannino was a finance and risk compliance manager at Accenture, where he helped financial institutions manage the transition of their suite of products away from the LIBOR index. Prior to this, Mannino worked at Goldman for more than 20 years in New York, Zurich, London and Los Angeles. Most recently he was senior vice president and global head of regulation assurance and compliance for margin and collateral at Goldman.
LMAX Global, the broker-dealer for foreign exchange and crypto currency trading, has appointed Andreas Wigström to the newly created role of managing director for LMAX Global, the group’s regulated broker for FX, metals and commodities. Wigström joined LMAX Group in 2010.
Digital asset bank Anchorage Digital has hired former Wells Fargo blockchain executive Ken Chapman to be its director of banking and capital markets products. Chapman led digital assets and blockchain initiatives for the capital markets team at Wells Fargo for two years. He has also worked for BNY Mellon, Bank of America, investment firm Bridgewater Associates, JPMorgan and UBS.
