Chief Executive Officer
Singapore Exchange
[27]

Thinking small is not one of Magnus Böcker’s faults. In June 2010, six months after the former Nasdaq OMX Group president became Singapore Exchange CEO, he launched a $250 million initiative to make SGX the world’s fastest trading venue. In October he agreed to an $8.9 billion merger of  his company with Australia’s ASX. Combined, they would have been the biggest Asia-Pacific exchange and No. 5 in the world, but the deal was shot down in April when  Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan ruled that it was not in his country’s interest. Böcker, 49, now vows to pursue “other forms of cooperation” with ASX along the lines of SGX’s “many alliances and partnerships.” Recent examples include the introduction of contracts jointly developed with the London Metal Exchange; an arrangement to make Nasdaq OMX investor relations tools available to SGX-listed companies; and an electronic trading link with exchanges in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand planned for late this year. Meanwhile, the ultra-high-speed trading engine SGX Reach, with order response time below 90 microseconds, is “on plan” for completion in August, says Böcker, who was the technology architect of Sweden’s OMX and headed that company before Nasdaq bought it in 2008.