In what is undoubtedly one of most important decision taken by the London Stock Exchange, it has decided to replace Dame Clara Furse one of the few female executives of LSE with former Lehman Brothers banker Xavier Rolet.
Dame Clara Furse
Furse, 50 is Canadian born and has been in charge for eight years during which has brushed off a number of hostile takeover bids for the London Stock market.
Paying tribute to her the LSE chairman Chris Gibson – Smith said that “we are very grateful to Clara for all she has delivered to the group. In her eight years at the helm, she bought the exchange to the public markets, transformed the scale of the business and its international reputation, and more recently led the merger with Borsa Italiana.” But Furse will remain a director until LSE’s annual meeting in July.
Xavier Rolet, a 49 year old Frenchman, was heading the business of Lehman Brothers in France, which was LSE biggest client until it collapsed in September. He has a lot of trading experience and can bring in a lot expertise in the job as he has previously worked at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Credit Swiss First Boston and Goldman Sachs.
Rolet will join the London Stock Exchange panel of board in mid – March and take over the duties from Furse as chief executive on 20th May. Gibson- Smith said that “With his deep knowledge of the exchange’s customers and understanding of the exchange business, plus his strategic mindset, Xavier is uniquely well placed to take the group forward in the next phase of its development.”
Over the years when Furse was at the LSE she had won a lot praise from LSE shareholders and users when she saw off hostile takeover advances from rivals including Nasdaq and Deutsche Borse. She had also strengthened the London market’s independence through mergers with Gulf State and Borsa Italiana. But her critics complained that what she didn’t do was take the London markets to the world and bring the world to the London markets. In the larger scheme of things Borsa Italiana was not a big player.
Xavier Rolet
But everyone seems to be pleased with the appointment of Rolet in this troubled times (The LSE has recently come under tremendous pressure from rival trading platforms like Chi-X and turquoise, which has recently lowered its tariffs). As he is a successful businessman with a flawless record.
