The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission will see a significant change in its leadership over the coming months. Acting Chair Caroline Pham plans to leave the CFTC once the Senate confirms Brian Quintenz, President Donald Trump's pick to head the agency. In the meantime, two other CFTC commissioners will depart at the end of May. Summer Mersinger will step down three years before the end of her tenure to join the Blockchain Alliance as its new chief executive. Christy Goldsmith Romero will leave the agency to join the faculty at Georgetown University's law school. Mersinger and Goldsmith Romero’s departures will leave the CFTC with a two-person commission, consisting of Pham, a Republican, and Commissioner Kristin Johnson, a Democrat. And Johnson announced she will depart the agency "later this year," though did not provide a date.
Also at the CFTC, Amanda Olear, former director of the Market Participants Division and former acting director of the Division of Market Oversight, is leaving to join the Washington office of the law firm Milbank as a special counsel. Olear has served at the CFTC for almost two decades in multiple leadership roles across its divisions.
Cboe Global Markets has appointed longtime global financial markets executive Craig Donohue as the company's new chief executive officer and a member of the board. Donohue succeeds Fredric Tomczyk who has stepped down as CEO and remains on the board. Over the last decade, Donohue has served as chairman of the board at OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, where he also spent three years as CEO from 2016 until 2019. Prior to that, Donohue spent two decades at CME Group including eight years as CEO before departing in 2012.
OCC has appointed Stephen Luparello as chair of its board of directors to succeed Donohue until April 2026. Luparello’s career in financial markets includes stints as general counsel for Citadel Securities and as director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets. In addition, he spent 16 years at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has announced the re-appointment of Carlson Tong as chairman until the conclusion of HKEX’s annual general meeting in 2027. Tong is also an independent non-executive director of MTR Corporation, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) and the Hong Kong Investment Corporation and serves as a director of the World Federation of Exchanges. Apurv Bagri and Nisa Leung will retire as directors of HKEX, with the board appointing Bagri as senior advisor to the board and member of HKEX’s International Advisory Council.
Flow Traders announced that Mike Kuehnel will step down from his role as CEO of the trading firm at the end of August to pursue a new opportunity. The company has initiated a search for his successor. Kuehnel joined Flow Traders in 2021 as chief financial officer and was appointed CEO two years later. In other moves, Marc Jansen and Alex Kieft have been appointed as co-chief trading officers, responsible for managing the global trading division with a focus on expanding the company's trading operations across multiple asset classes and geographies. Jansen joined Flow Traders in 2013 as a trader and became head of trading for EMEA in 2018. He was appointed head of trading with a focus on digital assets in 2021 and became global head of trading and management board member in January 2024. Kieft joined Flow Traders in 2014 as a trader and was appointed head of trading EMEA in 2019, followed by global head of trading with a focus on equities in 2022.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority has appointed David Geale as its executive director for payments and digital finance and managing director of the Payment Systems Regulator. He has worked at the FCA and its predecessor, the FSA, for more than 20 years, carrying out a number of roles in policy and supervision. More recently, Geale led the FCA’s work on developing a regime for cryptoassets as well as savings rates and reforming the mortgage market.
The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced the appointments of Julia Black, Anita Kimber, John Ball and Stéphane Malrait to the FCA Board. The Chancellor has also extended Richard Lloyd’s second term as a non-executive director on the board.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has named Anna Nordstrom as head of the Markets Group. Nordstrom has served as the interim head since December 2024, when Michelle Neal stepped down from the role to join UK blockchain payments company Fnality as CEO. Since 2023, Nordstrom has been head of the domestic and international markets function, responsible for the implementation of domestic monetary policy operations as directed by the Federal Open Market Committee, the execution of foreign exchange operations on behalf of the FOMC and the US Treasury, and the execution of the Federal Reserve’s central bank liquidity swap lines.
Deutsche Börse has appointed Clara-Christina Streit as the first female chair of the supervisory board of the German exchange group. She replaces Martin Jetter. Streit has served on the supervisory board since 2019. She is also chairwoman of the German Government Commission Corporate Governance Code and has the same role at real estate firm Vonovia.
Eurex has promoted Cornelius Trenz to head of sales Americas and global head of marketing for Eurex derivatives and Deutsche Börse cash markets, based in Chicago. Trent was previously head of marketing at Eurex.
Gavin Parker has joined Marex Group as the chief operating officer of its new Abu Dhabi unit, Marex Capital Limited. Parker was formerly the chief operating officer of Sucden Financial. The move follows Marex's recent acquisition of Aarna Capital, expanding its capabilities in clearing, execution and risk management.
CME Group has appointed Vijay Albuquerque as chief risk officer in its clearing and post-trade services division. Albuquerque most recently served as the head of counterparty risk and portfolio risk analytics for Citigroup's markets and banking business. He is based in New York and reports to Suzanne Sprague, CME Group’s chief operating officer and global head of clearing.
Clear Street has named Matthew Cousens as managing director, head of electronic execution, EMEA. Cousens is based in London and previously served as head of platform sales at Citi. Prior to Citi, he was head of EMEA execution sales at Barclays and co-head of AES sales for Europe at Credit Suisse.
Cargill, the world’s largest agricultural commodities trader, has named Samina Anwar, director of its global derivatives operations, to two additional roles at the company. She now serves as country leader for the UK and Ireland, which includes promoting collaboration across businesses and functions in the region and supporting its government affairs strategies. She also chairs the board of directors of Cargill PLC, the legal entity responsible the company’s agricultural businesses in the UK. Anwar, who joined Cargill in 1995, also serves on the board of directors of FIA and chairs the sponsor board of the Derivatives Market Institute for Standards.
Mark Tinworth has joined RBC Capital Markets in London as head of sales EMEA, global markets, a newly created role. He most recently served as global head of fixed income trading at UBS, overseeing rates and credit trading. In his new role, Tinworth will focus on the strategic initiatives of the global markets offering across the UK, continental Europe and the Middle East.
Cboe Global Markets has appointed two new sales directors for its Data Vantage business in Asia Pacific. Junichi Nakagawa has joined from Nasdaq where he led market data sales in Japan. He is based in Japan and previously held roles at brokers SBI Securities, Rakuten Securities and Mizuho Securities. Singapore-based Samuel Zou has joined from financial data firm Factset where he was sales director. Before Factset, he held senior sales roles at Refinitiv and IHS Markit.
Crossover Markets, a digital asset trading technology firm, has appointed Kevin Wolf as chief financial officer. He most recently served as chief financial officer at the American Financial Exchange, where he played a pivotal role in its January 2025 acquisition by Intercontinental Exchange. He has also worked at Euronext FX, Eris Exchange and Bank of America.
T. Rowe Price, the Baltimore-based asset manager, has promoted Matt Howell to global head of trading strategy. He was previously global head of derivatives and multi-asset trading solutions. Howell is based in London and has been at T. Rowe Price for more than 14 years, beginning his career there as a trader. Tony Ives has started a new position as global head of derivative and multi-asset trading solutions at T.Rowe Price. He held the previous role of multi asset execution strategist at the firm and also worked as head trader at Goldman Sachs.
Law firm Morgan Lewis has hired Robert Schwartz as a partner in its investment management practice, based in Washington, DC. Schwartz joins from the CFTC, where he served as general counsel and chief legal advisor. He joined the CFTC in 2011, serving primarily as its chief litigator representing the CFTC in significant cases, including several lawsuits challenging the agency’s implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act. Prior to the CFTC he worked in private practice representing businesses and individuals in enforcement actions and investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and other government agencies.
Predictions market firm Polymarket has hired Neal Kumar as chief legal officer. Kumar joins from Willkie Farr & Gallagher where he was a partner. Prior to that, he worked at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and was counsel in the Office of the General Counsel at the CFTC.
Vermeg, a financial software provider, has appointed Tarak Achich as its new CEO. Achich previously held executive roles at Groupe Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, Oddo & Cie and Euronext, and he served on the Vermeg board from 2008 to 2021. He succeeds co-CEOs Marwan Hanifeh, and Badreddine Ouali, who founded Vermeg in 1993. Hanifeh is now chair of the management board and Ouali has moved to chair the supervisory board.
Broadridge Financial Solutions has expanded its Nordic team with the appointments of Axel Josephson and Albin Andersson as sales directors. Josephson joins from Equiduct, where he served as country head of Sweden. Andersson joins from the London Stock Exchange Group, where he was an account manager, data and analytics.
In other moves, Broadridge Financial Solutions has hired Ian Williams and Anand Chintala for its trading and connectivity solutions division. Williams, who was previously chief executive of Virtu Canada, will be based in Toronto. Chintala, who left his role as director of portfolio trading at Barclays, will be based in New York. Both report to Brian Pomraning, chief product officer of Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions.
Pico, a global provider of technology services, has appointed Chicago-based Holly Meacham as chief sales officer. She was previously global head of sales and marketing at Curinos, a provider of data, analytics and technology to financial institutions.
Sterling Trading Tech has appointed Julie Armstrong as chief commercial officer. This is a newly created role as part of the firm's effort to scale its business globally. Armstrong previously served as an independent board member, and later as chief commercial officer at ChartIQ. Prior to that she was executive director, global head of market technology services at CME Group.
Steven Stewart has joined Qomly as a strategic commercial director, a newly created role. The former European head at Trading Technologies International will support the firm’s US and UK expansion efforts. Stewart left his role as executive vice president at TT at the end of 2023, after 18 years with the company.
Uzbek Commodity Exchange has appointed Asadulla Kayumov as chair of the board of directors. Prior to this appointment, Kayumov served as the first deputy chair of the committee for the development of competition and protection of consumer rights.
