(Previously Not Ranked) NYSE Euronext already had lots of technology smarts at the top. Before joining the exchange in 2007, CEO Duncan Niederauer played a key role in high-tech trading advances while at Goldman Sachs Group, and COO Lawrence Leibowitz did the same at UBS, Schwab Capital Markets and other firms.

But in December, Niederauer brought in more firepower: Dominique Cerutti, a 23-year veteran of IBM Corp., general manager of IBM Southwest Europe. “We don’t see ourselves just as an exchange business,” says Cerutti, 49, initially NYSE’s deputy CEO and head of global technology, and now its president. “

We are combining technology and market expertise to create integrated, scalable financial markets as well as services across asset classes.” Cerutti has focused on creating data centers in the U.K. and U.S. that will put all clients on a single platform for equities and derivatives.

As do other exchanges, NYSE looks to enable faster and easier access to its data centers. It also wants to help clients manage their data, trading platforms, risk and other functions. “We are creating a capital markets community,” Cerutti says.

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