Chief Executive Officer
CME Group
[PNR]
Amid the exchange megamergers this year — and rumors that the capital-rich parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange might enter the fray — Craig Donohue was quite content to hold his ground. The CME Group CEO already has some $20 billion worth of M&A deals under his belt, including the purchases of the Chicago Board of Trade in 2007 and the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2008. The payoff is measured in scale economies and the “ability to expand globally” using the Globex electronic platform, says Donohue, 49, a former general counsel who was instrumental in engineering CME’s 2002 IPO and has been CEO since 2004. “The success of our global expansion can be seen in terms of trading volume,” he says, noting that activity in exchange-traded products during non-U.S. market hours grew 35 percent in 2010 and represents 16 percent of CME’s business. First-quarter revenue was a record $832 million, up 20 percent year-over-year, while net income rose 22 percent, to $292 million. Over the past year, CME has formed or expanded partnerships with the likes of Bursa Malaysia and Brazil’s BM&FBovespa. “Our most recent efforts include reducing trading latencies to 1 to 2 milliseconds and launching our new state-of-the-art data center and customer colocation services,” Donohue says.
