The Chicago History Museum has honoured Leo Melamed by including him in its permanent exhibition, Chicago: Crossroads of America, recognising his transformative impact on the commodity futures industry, Chicago and global finance. As chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1972, Melamed founded the International Monetary Market, the world's first financial futures market. He went on to lead the establishment of the National Futures Association in 1981 and spearheaded the 1990 launch of Globex, the first global electronic futures trading system.
Darin Guries is joining FIA as vice president of US government relations, effective 2 September. Guries started his career working for former US Senators Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts. He then moved to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, where he served as a senior professional staff member focused on cryptocurrencies, derivatives, the CFTC and other issues. Following 15 years in the Senate, Guries joined JP Morgan as vice president of federal government relations. During his time there, he drove the formulation of legislative positions and strategy on behalf of JP Morgan related to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, derivatives and digital assets, among other issues.
GFO-X, the UK-regulated crypto currency exchange, has appointed Sabrina Wilson as chief operating officer. Wilson previously held executive positions in London and New York at JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Citi, where she most recently served as managing director, global head of futures, OTC Clearing and FX prime brokerage, as well as global head of listed electronic execution. More recently she held the role of group chief operating officer of Copper Technologies (UK) Ltd, a provider of digital asset custody services.
Virtu Financial has named Aaron Simons as its new chief executive officer. Simons succeeds co-founder Douglas Cifu, who is retiring after nearly two decades at the helm. Simons joined Virtu in 2008 and most recently held the role of chief technology officer for six years.
Matthias Graulich has been appointed as a member of the executive board of Eurex Frankfurt and member of the management board of Eurex Deutschland. He will continue to serve as a member of the executive board of Eurex Clearing, a position he has held since 2014. As part of the move, Graulich has stepped down from the management board of Eurex Repo, where he has served since November 2019. Frank Odendall will succeed him as managing director of Eurex Repo, joining managing director Frank Gast, who will remain in this role. Eurex says Graulich’s appointments reflects his broader responsibility in the new organisational setup anounced in March.
Clear Street has hired Chris Tufano as head of clearing, based in New York. He joins from Bank of America, where he held the role of managing director, served on the board of directors and was global head of clearing and prime brokerage platform transformation. He replaces Kevin McCarthy, the previous head of clearing and chief administrative officer who left Clear Street in August 2024.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has appointed Zhang Yong, managing partner of Firstlight Capital and former chairman of Alibaba Group, to its Mainland China Advisory Group. Established in 2021, the group is composed of senior industry experts with deep expertise in the Chinese market. The group provides strategic counsel to the HKEX board on major developments within China’s economy and financial system.
Daniel Veiner has been appointed as head of markets at BlackRock, overseeing trading, origination, corporate access and ETF markets. Veiner has been with BlackRock for 22 years, most recently serving as co-head of global trading.
Flow Traders has appointed Thomas Spitz, former global head of markets at First Abu Dhabi Bank, as its new chief executive and executive director of the board, effective 1 September. He succeeds Mike Kuehnel, who was appointed chief executive officer in February 2023. Before joining Flow Traders, Spitz was chief executive officer of QuantCube Middle East, an alternative data and analytics firm. From 2022 to 2024, he held senior roles at First Abu Dhabi Bank, initially as head of global markets and later as senior managing director.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has announced key appointments for senior positions at the US Department of the Treasury. Hunter McMaster will serve as assistant secretary for financial markets. He currently serves as director of policy and planning at the US Department of the Treasury. Before joining the Treasury, McMaster was head of trading at Key Square Group. Earlier in his career, he held roles at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, where he specialised in foreign exchange and interest rate markets. Luke Pettit will serve as acting under-secretary of domestic finance. He currently serves as the assistant secretary for financial institutions at the US Department of the Treasury. Prior to this role, Pettit was a senior policy adviser to US Senator Bill Hagerty. His previous experience also includes serving as an economist for the Senate Banking Committee and holding positions at Bridgewater Associates and the Federal Reserve’s division of monetary affairs.
Hugh Christensen has joined CME Group as the executive director and head of analytics. He is based in London and joins from Amazon Web Services, where he worked in data leadership. Christensen is also the founder of BMLL Technologies, a provider of historical data and analytics across global equities, ETFs, futures and US equity options.
Scott Johnston has joined Akuna Capital as chief operating officer. He was previously head of business operations at Hudson River Trading and has also worked at Citadel Securities, CME Group and Tower Research Capital.
Justin Chernow has been appointed director of exchange-traded derivatives sales and trading at Societe Generale. He is based in New York and previously worked at JP Morgan for 10 years, most recently as executive director of futures and options electronic trading - head of execution product, Americas.
Genesis Global co-founder Stephen Murphy has stepped down as chief executive officer and now serves as board advisor. He has worked at the financial software company for 10 years. He previously worked at HSBC and Merrill Lynch. James Harrison succeeds fellow co-founder Murphy as chief executive officer. Harrison is based in New York and prior to Genesis, he held senior technology-focused positions at Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, HSBC and Fidessa.
Sandro Oswald has joined Susquehanna as a quantitative trader for the central risk book. He is based in London and joins the company after almost a decade at Morgan Stanley. He most recently served as the co-head of centralised risk book and systemic market making, EMEA. He has also previously held quant trader ETF positions at KCG Holdings and Bank of America Merril Lynch.
Moritz Westhoff has joined Nomura as managing director. He was previously head of US and Canada linear rates trading at Bank of America where he worked for seven years. He joined the bank from Goldman Sachs in 2018. At Goldman, Westhoff was an executive director in the US government bond trading team.
David Aron has joined Lowenstein Sandler as special counsel where he is part of Lowenstein Crypto and the Commodities, Futures and Derivatives and Investment Management groups. Aron was previously counsel at Jones Day focusing on crypto, CFTC and SEC regulatory advisory work. Before that, he worked at the CFTC as special counsel, Division of Data, Legal and Policy Branch.
Aquis Exchange has announced the appointment of Thomas Downes as head of markets. He is responsible for leading the strategy, operations, and growth of the exchange group’s pan-European multilateral trading facility. Downes previously served as head of electronic trading sales and strategy and executive committee member at ITG and later Virtu, following its acquisition of ITG. He began his career at Merrill Lynch, focusing on technology and product development across fixed income and foreign exchange. Downes succeeds David Stevens in leading Aquis’ markets division, following Stevens’ appointment as chief executive officer of Aquis Exchange in February 2025.
New Zealand Stock Exchange chief executive Mark Peterson has announced he is stepping down in April 2026 after nine years in the role. NZX will conduct an internal and external search, including internationally, for a new chief executive.
