

If global reach and product diversification — and the ability to confront the technology challenges that they pose — separate the elite exchange operators from the rest, then Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing truly joined the club in 2013 with its $2.2 billion acquisition of the London Metal Exchange. The motivation of Charles Li, HKEX's chief executive officer since 2010, was not mere empire-building: His focus is on growth opportunities in China, including LME's potential to serve Chinese institutional traders' needs. Despite his lobbying efforts, Li has yet to get LME registered on the mainland. But he did gain approval for a surrogate, the Qianhai Mercantile Exchange, which opened in May in Shenzhen. HKEX's fifth active trading venue, Qianhai caters to demand that, according to Li, is not being met by China's three futures markets. The 55-year-old adds that very few contracts on the Chinese exchanges come with an option for physical settlement, and spot market participants are dispersed among hundreds of poorly regulated and highly fragmented trading platforms. "We can't just blindly copy the LME, because China has its own unique characteristics and challenges," Li says. "So we want to leverage the LME to begin tackling some of China's unique structural issues by building a new model that both fills a market vacuum and meets market needs. We want to serve the physical economy and eventually establish benchmark prices for China."
![]() 2. Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp. ![]() 3. Robert Goldstein BlackRock ![]() 4. Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange ![]() 5. Lance Uggla IHS Markit |
![]() 6. Shawn Edwards & Vlad Kliatchko Bloomberg ![]() 7. David Craig Thomson Reuters ![]() 8. Michael Spencer NEX Group ![]() 9. Don Callahan Citigroup ![]() 10. Elisha Wiesel Goldman Sachs Group |
![]() 11. Michael Bodson Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. ![]() 12. Terrence Duffy CME Group ![]() 13. Charles Li Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing ![]() 14. Sean Belka Fidelity Investments ![]() 15. Chris Concannon CBOE Holdings |
![]() 16. Guy Chiarello First Data Corp. ![]() 17. Steven Lieblich Citadel ![]() 18. David Rutter R3CEV ![]() 19. Blythe Masters Digital Asset Holdings ![]() 20. Alfred Spector Two Sigma Investments |
![]() 21. Neil Katz D.E. Shaw Group ![]() 22. Lee Olesky Tradeweb Markets ![]() 23. Richard McVey MarketAxess Holdings ![]() 24. David Gledhill DBS Bank ![]() 25. Seth Merrin Liquidnet Holdings |
![]() 26. Antoine Shagoury State Street Corp. ![]() 27. Peter Brown & Robert Mercer Renaissance Technologies ![]() 28. Lou Eccleston TMX Group ![]() 29. Peter Cherecwich Northern Trust Corp. ![]() 30. Mike Chinn S&P Global Market Intelligence |
![]() 31. Chris Corrado London Stock Exchange Group ![]() 32. Neal Pawar AQR Capital Management ![]() 33. Gary Norcross Fidelity National Information Services ![]() 34. Steven O'Hanlon Numerix ![]() 35. Sebastián Ceria Axioma |
![]() 36. Brian Conlon First Derivatives and Kx Systems ![]() 37. Tyler Kim MaplesFS ![]() 38. Michael Cooper BT Radianz ![]() 39. Robert Schifellite Broadridge Financial Solutions ![]() 40. Jim Minnick eVestment |