Commissioner Rostin Behnam has been selected as acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He was sworn in as a commissioner in 2017 and has served as the sponsor of the Market Risk Advisory Committee. Behnam succeeds Heath Tarbert, who served as chairman since 2019. Tarbert will remain a commissioner at the CFTC.
Gary Gensler has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Gensler most recently served on the president’s transition team to review various US financial agencies. He previously served as chairman of the CFTC, under President Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2014. Until Gensler's confirmation has been taken up by the Senate, SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee will serve as acting chair for the agency.
Elsewhere at the SEC, Melissa R. Hodgman has been named acting director of the division of enforcement. She previously served as an associate director in the division.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing has appointed Alejandro Nicolas Aguzin as its new chief executive officer, effective 24 May. Aguzin will serve a term of three years until 23 May 2024, subject to the approval of the Securities and Futures Commission. He joins from JP Morgan, where he is CEO of JP Morgan’s international private bank and a member of the operating committee for the firm’s asset and wealth management business. Prior to this, from 2012 to 2020, he was CEO, JP Morgan, Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong, and from 2005 to 2012 he headed JP Morgan Latin America. He joined JP Morgan in 1990. Aguzin replaces Charles Li, who announced his plans to step down from the role in May last year after a decade leading the exchange group.
Euronext has appointed Delphine d’Amarzit as CEO of Euronext Paris and member of the managing board of Euronext N.V. D’Amarzit joins from Orange Bank where she was deputy CEO. She previously held senior positions within the French Treasury department for several years. From 2007 to 2009 she was also in charge of financial and economic affairs at the office of the prime minister.
Anthony Attia, who is currently CEO of Euronext Paris and member of the managing board of Euronext N.V., has been appointed global head of primary markets and post trade. He will oversee Euronext’s equity, debt and fund listing franchise and the corporate services business, as well as clearing, custody, and settlement activities at the group level. Attia will also be instrumental in the integration of the Borsa Italiana Group activities.
Julia Hoggett, a former director at the UK Financial Conduct Authority, has been appointed CEO of the London Stock Exchange. Hoggett was most recently director of market oversight at the FCA and previously led the wholesale banking department. Before joining the regulator in 2014, she was an investment banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan. Hoggett will take on the new position this spring, reporting to Murray Roos, group director, capital markets at the London Stock Exchange Group. She assumes the role from Nikhil Rathi who was appointed head of the FCA in June last year. Denzil Jenkins will continue as interim CEO of LSE until Hoggett starts.
In other news, Balbir Bakhshi has joined the London Stock Exchange Group as chief risk officer and a member of the LSEG executive committee, reporting to CEO David Schwimmer. He takes over from Diane Côté, who has retired. Bakhshi joins LSEG from Deutsche Bank, where he was group head of non-financial risk management. Prior to this, he was global head of operational risk management at Credit Suisse and previously held a variety of senior roles at the firm including UK investment banking chief risk officer and head of market risk.
The European Commission has appointed Alexandra Jour-Schroeder as deputy director-general of its department for financial services, DG FISMA. Jour-Schroeder, a German official, has worked at the European Commission for 24 years. She is currently director of criminal justice and acting deputy director-general in the DG Justice and Consumers department. In other news, Jenny Robertson has replaced Patrick Pearson as head of financial markets infrastructure and derivatives in an acting capacity.
Optiver, the Dutch proprietary trading company and derivatives market-maker, has appointed Leaf Wade as an institutional trader in its London trading team. Wade joins Optiver from Goldman Sachs, where he worked as an equity derivatives sales trader. Prior to this, he spent 11 years as an equity derivatives sales trader as well as a trader on the proprietary trading desk at UBS.
MarketAxess, an electronic trading venue for corporate bonds that recently expanded into interest rate products, has appointed Raj Paranandi as chief operating officer, EMEA and APAC. Based in London, Paranandi will report to Christophe Roupie, head of EMEA and APAC, and work closely with Chris Concannon, president and COO at MarketAxess. He joins from UBS, where he was most recently global co-head of digital transformation for UBS Global Markets and global head of change for UBS Investment Bank. Prior to this, he spent four years as global COO for FX, rates and credit at the Swiss bank. He has also worked at Barclays, Credit Suisse and Accenture.
FIA's John Graham has been promoted to senior director of regulation. Graham is a key member of FIA's European staff, leading many working groups and committees, including the FIA Europe Compliance Committee, multiple FIA reporting committees, and the Sustainable Finance EU Committee. He joined FIA in 2018 from Deutsche Bank where he was vice president and worked in various legal and compliance roles.
Paul Andrews, the outgoing secretary general of the International Organization of Securities Commissions, is joining the CFA Institute in Washington DC as managing director of research, advocacy and standards. He will report to Margaret Franklin, president and CEO of the CFA Institute. Prior to his role at IOSCO, Andrews served as vice president and managing director, international affairs, of FINRA, which oversees US broker-dealers. Previously, he was senior managing director, business operations at Nasdaq Europe and vice president, international strategic development at Nasdaq Stock Market.
Nasdaq has appointed Jeremy Skule as executive vice president and chief strategy officer with responsibility for furthering Nasdaq’s move into a technology and analytics company. Skule will be responsible for driving strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, venture investing and NasdaqNext innovation. He will also continue to oversee Nasdaq’s marketing and communications division, now part of global strategy. Nasdaq is conducting a search for a new chief marketing officer, reporting to Skule.
John Tornatore has joined Small Exchange, a futures market aimed at retail customers, as global head of business development. He was previously director of business development and global head of cryptocurrencies at Cboe Global Markets, where he worked for 10 years. Before joining Cboe, he served as vice president of operations at Zack's Investment Research for five years.
Dan Torrey has joined Lukka, a software and data solutions provider to the digital asset industry. Torrey previously worked at Northern Trust, ParFX and EBS, managing sales for electronic execution services in spot, forwards, swaps and non-deliverable forwards. Most recently he was head of institutional sales for Genesis Global Capital, a company that offers institutions the ability to borrow bitcoin and other digital currencies for market making and hedging. Lukka was founded in 2014 and recently raised funding from State Street, S&P Global and CPA.com.
London Metal Exchange has appointed Bernd Sischka as head of buyside sales. He previously was global head of metals and iron ore at Refinitiv, where he was responsible for revenue growth and strategic development of product, content, research and forecasting groups. Prior to joining Refinitiv he worked at Alaska Metals in London as a trader in charge of the LME hedging department. He replaces David Lutz, who moved to Hong Kong and is now vice president, client development at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, LME's parent company.
N. Charles “Charlie” Thornton III has opened a Washington, DC-based consulting firm, T Cap Solutions, which is a full-service government affairs firm that will help clients navigate the Congress, Administration, and US regulatory agencies. Thornton was previously chief of staff and chief operating officer at the CFTC and counselor to Chairman Heath Tarbert. Prior to joining Chairman Tarbert’s office in 2019, Thornton served as the CFTC’s director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. He joined the Commission in 2017 from the US Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, where he served as senior professional staff and counsel.
OSTC, a derivatives trading and education business, has opened a Hong Kong office and hired Fladia Tang as country head, Greater China and Sammi Li as head of sales, Greater China. Tang joins from HSBC, where she has held several roles since 1999, most recently as a programme director to build out HSBC’s China wealth management subsidiary. Li most recently served as head of Asia at Euronext, with a strong focus on growth in Greater China. Prior to this, Li worked at NYSE Liffe, EY and Icap.
Daniel J. Davis, the CFTC's recently departed general counsel, has joined law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman. Davis, who for nearly four years served as the CFTC's general counsel and headed up its legal division, will remain in Washington DC and joins Katten as a partner in its financial markets and funds practice.
Keaghan Ames has been promoted to head of US regulatory policy at Credit Suisse. He was previously vice president of US regulatory policy at the firm. Ames joined Credit Suisse in 2019 from PricewaterhouseCoopers where he was a senior associate in the financial services regulatory group. Prior to this, he worked at the CFTC as a law clerk for the office of Commissioner (Chairman) Christopher Giancarlo.
Baton Systems, a provider of post-trade software, has named Phil Corryn as director of sales for North America. Based in New York, Corryn reports directly to Alex Knight, Baton’s head of global sales and head of EMEA. Prior to joining Baton, Corryn was senior vice president, sales at FinTech Studios. Before that, he was head of America sales at Asset Control. He has also held various senior positions with Bloomberg, GoldenSource and SunGard.
Ben Allensworth has re-joined law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher as counsel and a member of the firm’s asset management group, based in Washington, DC. He previously served as managing director and counsel for tax and finance at the Managed Funds Association for 13 years. Prior to this, he was an associate in Willkie’s Washington office.
