Obituary
James Oliff, a longtime CME member and former vice chair, passed away in late February. FIA inducted Oliff into its Hall of Fame in 2023 in recognition of his contributions to the industry. He played a key role in the demutualisation of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and its transition to electronic trading, helping to guide market participants through the shift from floor-based to screen-based trading. A career broker and trader, Oliff spent 30 years on the CME board. He also chaired the Electronic Transition Committee, where he helped develop initiatives to support traders adapting to electronic markets. In addition, he held leadership roles across CME’s clearing and governance functions, including chairing the Clearing House Risk Committee and the Professional Responsibilities Committee. Later in his career, Oliff was involved with financial technology firms, serving as US chief executive of FFastfill and co-founding KRM22.
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As Michael Selig, chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, builds out his new team, the agency has made several appointments in the past few weeks. These include David Miller as the new director of enforcement. A former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, Miller joins the CFTC from law firm Greenberg Traurig.
Alan Brubaker also joins the CFTC as its new director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. He was most recently a senior adviser to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform under Congressman James Comer (R-Ky.), and before that he was vice president of external affairs for Prudential Financial.
In other moves, Elizabeth Mastrogiacomo and Meghan Tente have been appointed to serve as senior advisors to the chairman. Mastrogiacomo previously served as senior counsel to former CFTC Commissioners Summer Mersinger and Dawn Stump. Prior to joining the CFTC, Mastrogiacomo practiced law in the derivatives group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Tente has held multiple leadership roles at the CFTC, most recently as chief of staff to Acting Chairman Caroline Pham and acting general counsel. She previously served as acting director of the Division of Market Oversight.
Mel Gunewardena has been appointed as director of its Office of International Affairs and senior markets advisor to the chairman. He brings experience in global financial markets and international regulatory affairs, developed through a career as a managing director in the global markets trading divisions at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and State Street. Gunewardena held a range of global leadership roles across trading, prime brokerage and derivatives, overseeing risk businesses in North America, Europe and Asia. Most recently, he served as senior advisor for global markets to the chief executive of the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Prior to that, he was chief market intelligence officer at the CFTC from 2019 to 2022.
Emma Johnston joins the agency as senior agriculture advisor to the chairman. She previously worked in the office of Senator Tommy Tuberville, where she served as senior policy advisor covering agriculture, trade, energy and environment, and supported Tuberville’s work on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
The CFTC has also appointed Jessica Harris as director of the Division of Data and chief data officer. Harris brings more than 25 years of experience across surveillance, market conduct, data standards and financial regulation. She previously held roles at both the CFTC and the National Futures Association. Meanwhile, Brooke Nethercott has joined the CFTC as director of the Office of Public Affairs. Most recently, she served as deputy communications director for the House Financial Services Committee under chairman French Hill, having previously held the role of communications director for Hill.
In addition, the CFTC has appointed Marc Sielski as executive director of the agency to oversee its administrative operations. Sielski brings experience in financial services and management consulting including serving as a senior manager at MorganFranklin Consulting and as a vice president at the MUFG financial group.
Katharine Braddick, group head of strategic policy at Barclays, will replace Sam Woods as chief executive of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority when his term expires at the end of June. Braddick, who will also serve as one of the BoE’s four deputy governors, will inherit several key decisions, including whether to ease capital requirements for banks. Braddick joined Barclays four years ago after two decades in the public sector, including senior roles at the Treasury, where she oversaw financial policy after Brexit. Before that, she was a director at the PRA.
Cboe Global Markets has appointed Vincent McGonagle as vice president for regulatory compliance. McGonagle joins from the CFTC, where he spent more than a decade in a range of senior roles. Most recently, he served on detail in the Office of General Counsel from May 2025 to March 2026. Prior to this, he was director of the Division of Market Oversight from 2022 to 2025, having previously held the same role between 2013 and 2017.
Iouri Saroukhanov has been promoted to vice president, tokenization and alternative products at Cboe Global Markets. He previously held the role of head of European derivatives. Before Cboe, Saroukhanovworked at Bloomberg and Liquid Capital Group.
FIA has announced the election of new directors and a new leadership structure at its annual meeting in Boca Raton, Florida. The board has appointed Mariam Rafi (Citi) and Emma Richardson (JP Morgan) as co-vice chairs. The new primary member directors are Ram Vittal (Marex), Geoff Allen (Barclays) and Amy Elliott (UBS) and the new at-large director is Daniel Gorfine (Gattaca Horizons LLC).
Jeff Carter, a former trader and board member at CME, has announced his candidacy for Nevada State Treasurer. Carter currently works as a general partner at West Loop Ventures, a venture capital firm he founded in 2013 focused on early-stage fintech investments. Earlier in his career, he served as a board member of CME from 1998 to 2001, where he was involved in strategic planning during the exchange’s transition to a public company. He joined CME in 1992 and spent nearly two decades there.
Former CFTC commissioner Mark Wetjen has joined cryptocurrency trading platform Backpack as president of Backpack US. Wetjen served as a CFTC commissioner from 2011-2015 and was among the first US regulators to advocate for clear regulatory frameworks and market infrastructure for crypto. He has since worked in various roles, most recently as global head of policy and regulatory affairs at OKX. He also served as head of global public policy at DTCC and as CEO of MIAX Futures, among other senior leadership roles.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has welcomed the Hong Kong Government’s appointment of Clement Chan, and the reappointment of Chan Kin-por and Herbert Chia, to its board of directors. The terms of the three directors will begin at the conclusion of HKEX’s 2026 annual general meeting in April and will run until the conclusion of the AGM in 2028. Susan Chow will retire from the board as a government-appointed director following the conclusion of the 2026 AGM. Cheah Cheng Hye and Hugo Leung will also retire from the board at that time, stepping down from their roles as elected directors.
Mark Phelps has joined Clear Street as head of business development for EMEA. He joins from RJ O’Brien, where he spent four years as managing director. Prior to this, he served as group chief executive officer of GH Financials from 2018 to 2021, having previously held the role of global head of marketing and sales at the firm from 2012.
Deutsche Bank has promoted Alexandra Büchold to director, global head of exchange mandatory clearing technology. She has been at Deutsche Bank for 26 years and received FIA President’s Award in 2025 for her contributions to the industry.
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union has made several senior appointments and organisational changes. Astrid Cousin has been appointed director for horizontal policies. She joins from the Directorate-General for Competition, where she served as head of unit for strategic coordination. She succeeds Eric Ducolombier, who has retired. Didier Millerot has been appointed director for general affairs. He previously served as head of unit for sustainable finance and replaces Nathalie de Basaldua, who retired last year. Joanna Sikora-Wittnebel has been named acting head of unit for sustainable finance, while Andrea Liesenfeld has been appointed acting head of unit for retail financial services and payments. Tommy de Temmerman has been appointed head of unit for economic security in financial services.
South Korean law firm Shin & Kim has appointed Hyojae Cho as senior adviser. He joins the firm’s financial regulation group, led by partner Seongkoo Cheong. Cho previously served as vice-chairman of the Korea Exchange from 2019 to 2023. Prior to that, he spent 31 years at Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service, where he held several senior roles, including team leader of the legal affairs office and director of the financial investment bureau.
Citi has appointed Thai Nguyet Minh as head of markets and country treasurer for Vietnam. She will report to Sue Lee, head of markets for Asia South. She joins from Maybank, where she most recently served as head of global markets Vietnam. Prior to this, she spent nearly 15 years at BNP Paribas. Earlier in her career, she held roles at Barclays, Julius Baer, Credit Suisse and UBS.
Circle has appointed Microsoft chief operating officer Kirk Koenigsbauer to its board of directors. Koenigsbauer will serve on the board’s Compensation and Risk Committees. He currently serves as president and chief operating officer of Microsoft’s Experiences and Devices Group, focused on Microsoft and Copilot. He has also served on the board of directors of Thomson Reuters since March 2020.
John Palmer has joined US cryptocurrency exchange Kraken as global head of derivatives. Based in New York, he joins the firm from IEX, where he spent close to two years. He joined IEX in June 2024 as head of options and was later appointed head of cross-asset product.
NinjaTrader Group has appointed Christopher Tripp as general manager, international. Tripp joins NinjaTrader with 15 years of experience in the international and retail trading spaces. He led integration efforts post-acquisition for tastytrade and IG Group, having previously served as the head of international expansion for tastytrade, and most recently as UK commercial director at IG Group.
Scila, a provider of market surveillance and risk management solutions, has promoted Lisa Jonsson to head of customer success, and Mattias Wallman to the role of principal engineer, energy and commodities.
David Doyle has been appointed global head of policy and strategy within S&P Global’s government affairs and public policy function. Based in Brussels, he has been with the company for more than a decade. Doyle was most recently vice president and head of government affairs and public policy for EMEA, a role he has held since 2022.
BHP has announced Brandon Craig as incoming chief executive officer and a director of BHP Group Limited effective 1 July. Craig will succeed the current chief executive officer, Mike Henry, who will step down after six and a half years in the role. Craig has been at BHP for more than 25 years and in his current role as president of the Americas since March 2024.
Baker Street Advisors has promoted partner Christopher Wilkens to chief executive officer and named chief investment officer Peter Hand as partner. Wilkens joined the firm in 2007 as a partner and most recently served as chair of the executive committee. Prior to joining Baker Street, he co-founded Verity Wealth Advisors and has previously held roles at Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Goldman Sachs. Hand joined the firm in 2024 as chief investment officer.
Liquidnet has announced the appointment of Michael Gibbons as global head of listed derivatives business development. Gibbons joins from Morgan Stanley, where he spent more than 12 years leading electronic futures sales and coverage across global markets. Based in New York, he reports to Marianna Rayetskyy, global head of listed derivatives.
Funds-Axis has appointed Chris Machin as chief operating officer. Machin joins the firm after spending seven years at Kaizen Reporting, most recently as chief of staff. He also held roles at UBS and Credit Suisse earlier in his career.
