< The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge

On the slim foundation of a regional power exchange that he bought in 1997 for $1 as a proving ground for electronic trading innovation, Jeffrey Sprecher formed Intercontinental Exchange in 2000. Within a decade the entrepreneur had lived the dream of becoming a captain of industry as ICE, fueled by several more sizable, flawlessly executed acquisitions, grew into a global force in energy, commodities and derivatives. And that was before the $11 billion takeover of NYSE Euronext in 2013 lifted ICE to its current perch atop the exchange world. Sprecher, however, has not lost touch with his inner disrupter, or with a key strategic ingredient that got him this far. “The risk of adopting technology early is one that I don’t mind taking,” the 60-year-old says. “Technology allowed us to scale the business quickly — it scales in ways that people can’t.” ICE injected scale and efficiency into NYSE; it replaced the legacy Liffe derivatives platform last year. In New York, where a technical glitch halted trading for more than three hours on July 8, ICE is implementing Pillar, which will consolidate five equity and options systems into one as it rolls out between this quarter and 2017. Maintaining a stellar earnings record — first-quarter profit per share from continuing operations, at $3.06, jumped 26 percent year-over-year — Sprecher remains acquisitive. SuperDerivatives, purchased in October 2014 for $350 million, is a “big data play,” he says, with “tools for deep data analysis” that are in the same realm of analytic and valuation capabilities that ICE brings to its administration of Libor, gold and swap benchmarks. In January, NYSE took a minority stake in Bitcoin wallet company Coinbase, followed in May by its launch of the NYSE Bitcoin Index (NYXBT). “I am personally involved” in the investment, Sprecher says. Cryptocurrency and the associated blockchain technology “could be revolutionary. We need to be in that dialogue.”

See the full story, “The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge.”

See also “ICE’s Jeffrey Sprecher Has Built a Global Trading Powerhouse” and watch an exclusive video interview with Jeff Sprecher on why NYSE is such an important part of his company’s revenue model.

 
The 2015 Tech 50

1. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange Global Real Estate Rebound: Signs of Sustainable Recovery and Opportunity Sponsored by Nuveen June 24, 2025 2. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp. 3. Phupinder Gill CME Group 4. Lance Uggla Markit 5. Robert Goldstein BlackRock

6. Shawn Edwards & Vlad Kliatchko Bloomberg 7. R. Martin Chavez Goldman Sachs Group 8. Deborah Hopkins Citi Ventures 9. Stephen Neff Fidelity Investments 10. Adena Friedman Nasdaq OMX Group

11. David Craig Thomson Reuters 12. Daniel Coleman KCG Holdings 13. Michael Spencer ICAP 14. Michael Bodson Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. 15. Charles Li Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing

16. Chris Concannon BATS Global Markets 17. Christopher Perretta State Street Corp. 18. Antoine Shagoury London Stock Exchange Group 19. Kevin Rhein Wells Fargo & Co. 20. Neil Katz D.E. Shaw & Co.

21. Lee Olesky Tradeweb Markets 22. Richard McVey MarketAxess Holdings 23. Seth Merrin Liquidnet Holdings 24. Robert Alexander Capital One Financial Corp. 25. Frank Bisignano First Data Corp.

26. John Marcante Vanguard Group 27. Joseph Squeri Citadel 28. Lou Eccleston TMX Group 29. Claude Honegger Credit Suisse 30. Chris Corrado MSCI

31. David Gledhill DBS Bank 32. John Bates Software AG 33. Michael Cooper BT Radianz 34. Gary Scholten Principal Financial Group 35. Sunil Hirani trueEX Group

36. Hauke Stars Deutsche BÖrse 37. Brian Conlon First Derivatives 38. Jim Minnick eVestment 39. Lars Seier Christensen & Kim Fournais 40. Tyler Kim MaplesFS

41. Jim McGuire Charles Schwab Corp. 42. Steven O'Hanlon Numerix 43. Sebastián Ceria Axioma 44. Yasuki Okai NRI Holdings America 45. Stephane Dubois Xignite

46. Mazy Dar OpenFin 47. Brian Sentance Xenomorph Software 48. Mas Nakachi OpenGamma 49. John Lehner BNY Mellon Technology Solutions Group 50. Jock Percy Perseus