Rolet to Steer LSE

The London Stock Exchange names Xavier Rolet as its next CEO.

100x102roletxavier.jpg

The London Stock Exchange has named the head of one of its biggest former customers as its next CEO. Xavier Rolet, ex–chief executive of Lehman Brothers in France, gained firsthand knowledge of the LSE’s trading system as a senior equity trader at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs before joining Lehman in 2000. Now the 49-year-old Parisian, who will replace CEO Clara Furse on May 20, must restore the LSE’s competitive luster, tarnished by its failure to keep pace with global consolidation. The exchange’s only notable acquisition during Furse’s eight-year tenure was that of the Borsa Italiana in 2007 in a deal valued at $2.15 billion, four years after the LSE missed a chance to acquire the up-and-coming London International Financial Futures Exchange, or Liffe, now owned by NYSE Euronext. Rolet, who refused to comment, will likely need to fend off competitors “with enhanced systems, new product offerings and improved pricing and tariff structures,” as exchanges battle for market share amid the global financial crisis, says Cubillas Ding, a senior analyst in for Celent, a New York financial market research firm.

Related