Obituary
On 25 June, John Gerald (Jack) Gaine, the former president of the Managed Futures Association, passed peacefully at his home in Washington, D.C., 11 days after the death of his wife Tish of more than 45 years. Gaine was one of the pillars of the futures industry and was elected to FIA’s Hall of Fame in 2013. After his admission to the bar in 1968, he practiced law at Breed, Abbott & Morgan in New York before being appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 as general counsel of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. In 1998, after working in private practice and serving as the MFA's director of government relations and general counsel, he became the MFA president, a position he held until 2008 when he was appointed president emeritus.
People news
Intercontinental Exchange has made a series of changes to the leadership of its futures exchanges, including ICE Futures Europe, ICE Futures US, ICE Futures Singapore and ICE Endex.
Chris Rhodes has been appointed president of ICE Futures Europe, succeeding Stuart Williams who will become the parent company's chief operating officer. Rhodes was most recently COO of ICE Clear Europe and prior to that was global head of financial derivatives.
Starting on 1 August, Jennifer Ilkiw will become the next president of ICE Futures US, succeeding Trabue Bland, who is assuming a new position overseeing ICE’s futures exchanges globally. Ilkiw will relocate to New York after almost 15 years working for ICE in Singapore as head of ICE Asia Pacific.
Maria Levanti will become president and COO of ICE Futures Singapore and ICE Clear Singapore from 1 August. Levanti is currently responsible for pricing and analytics at ICE Data Services in Asia Pacific. She succeeds Lucas Schmeddes who will become president and COO at ICE Endex in Amsterdam, taking over from Pieter Schuurs, who plans to retire at the end of July. Schmeddes, a Dutch native, served as COO of ICE Endex before moving to launch ICE Futures Singapore in 2014.
In addition, Tim Bowler, president of ICE Benchmark Administration in London, will assume a new role in New York, which will include a focus on ICE’s clearing business, leveraging his background in international regulatory issues and product development. Clive de Ruig, most recently the COO at ICE Futures Europe, has been appointed president of ICE Benchmark Administration, with Kate Hancock succeeding de Ruig as COO at ICE Futures Europe.
TP ICAP has appointed Daniel Fields as head of global broking, reporting directly to group CEO, Nicolas Breteau. The appointment means that Andrew Polydor, who has led both global broking and energy & commodities throughout the pandemic, will return to focusing on the energy & commodities business as CEO. He will be supported by George Dranganoudis, who is transferring from Asia Pacific to become deputy CEO and EMEA CEO of energy & commodities. Fields joins TP ICAP from Altero Capital Partners, where he held strategic advisory and capital markets roles. He was previously global head of markets at Société Générale.
Options Clearing Corporation, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, has appointed Andrej Bolkovic as its next chief executive officer, replacing John Davidson who will retire in the first half of 2023. Bolkovic will join OCC as CEO-elect on 3 October 2022, working with Davidson for a smooth transition of responsibilities. Since March 2021, Bolkovic has served as chief executive officer of Akuna Capital and its broker-dealer Akuna Securities. Prior to that, from 2016 to 2020, he was CEO of ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago. Bolkovic also worked for ABN AMRO Clearing Bank in the Netherlands in several senior roles, including global chief information officer, chief operating officer and executive board member, and served on the supervisory boards of EMCF, a Pan-European equities clearing house, and derivatives-focused Holland Clearing House. Davidson joined OCC in 2017 as president and COO and was promoted to CEO in 2019.
In other news, OCC has announced two new members of its board of directors: Alicia Crighton, global head of prime services clearing, futures clearing and cleared swaps at Goldman Sachs, and Faris Matalka, head of trading operations and margin services at Charles Schwab. Crighton and Matalka fill vacancies left in March and June 2022, respectively.
NatWest Markets has appointed Malavika Solanki as head of business development and strategy for markets, reporting to CEO Robert Begbie. Solanki joins from the Derivatives Services Bureau, a data provider and fintech platform, where she oversaw operations and product development. DSB is responsible for creating the unique identifying numbers assigned to derivative securities. Solanki previously worked at LCH.Clearnet and Merrill Lynch.
London Stock Exchange Group has appointed Peter Golder as head of group digital assets, reporting to Murray Roos, group head of capital markets, with a reporting line to Daniel Maguire, group head of post trade. Golder was the founder, CEO and chairman of Addaura, an independent strategy consulting and corporate advisory boutique focused on crypto, DeFi and digital assets. He was previously the chief commercial officer of SIX Digital Exchange and was the CEO and founder of Euroclear Information Solutions.
Alex Wilson has started a new role with the London Stock Exchange Group as senior manager, post trade sales at clearing house LCH. Wilson previously worked at CME Group as director, strategic account management. Before that, he worked in business development at Nasdaq OMX and held futures trading roles at SEB Merchant Bank and BNP Paribas.
Camille Blackburn will join the UK Financial Conduct Authority in October as director of wholesale buy-side, a newly created role, from Legal & General Investment Management, where she is global chief compliance officer. Matthew Long is joining the regulator as director of payments and digital assets, a new role overseeing crypto-asset markets. Long was previously a director in the National Economic Crime Command within the National Crime Agency. In addition, Simon Walls, who was appointed interim director in May, will continue in the role of director of wholesale on a permanent basis, with a focus on the wholesale sell-side.
In other moves, Rhiannon Price has started a new position as wholesale crypto policy manager at the FCA. She was previously technical specialist, capital markets policy at the regulator.
Global central bank governors have signed off on three appointments to lead key committees at the Bank for International Settlements. The governors on the BIS global economy meeting extended the term of Bank of England deputy governor Jon Cunliffe as chair of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) until October 2023, when Cunliffe’s tenure at the BoE ends. They also appointed John Williams, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as chair of the Markets Committee for three years from January 2023. Philip Lowe, governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, was appointed for a second term as chair of the Committee on the Global Financial System, until June 2024.
Simta Gupta has been promoted to senior vice president and global head of operations at ADM Investor Services. She was previously vice president, operations responsible for oversight, direction and coordination of ADMIS operations and processing teams. Gupta joined ADMIS in 2019 from BP Oil Americas where she held various roles over 12 years. She started her career in investment banking and held middle office positions at Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston in London.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand has appointed Chakkaphan Tirasirichai as executive vice president and head of the product development group in the market division. Tirasirichai will oversee the derivatives department and cash product development. He joined SET in 2014 and has held product and service development management positions at Thailand Futures Exchange.
