David Schwimmer has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), replacing Xavier Rolet, who was pushed out in November. This brings to a halt its six-month search for a new chief executive.
Mr. Schwimmer, a Goldman Sachs banker, until his appointment advices the exchanges as head of Goldman’s market structure business in New York and will join in August after 20 years at the Wall Street firm
The 49-year-old American’s first task will be to steady LSE after an unusually turbulent period for one of the City’s oldest and most prestigious institutions.
After Mr. Rolet’s departure was announced in October, TCI Fund Management, one of LSE’s biggest shareholders, called for his reinstatement and accused the board of forcing him out against the interests of investors. The dispute came to a head in late November when Rolet agreed to leave immediately and LSE said its chairman, Donald Brydon, would not stand for re-election after 2019.
Schwimmer’s appointment resolves LSE’s quest for a new chief executive less than two weeks before its annual general meeting on 24 April. With a new chief executive lined up, Brydon is likely to face an easier ride at the meeting. TCI declined to comment on the decision to hire Schwimmer.
The Yale and Harvard graduate will also have to defend LSE’s position as the world’s biggest clearing house for derivative transactions against competition from European exchanges. Germany’s Deutsche Börse is trying to lure the lucrative business away from London after the Brexit vote.
London Clearing House, which LSE controls, processes about three-quarters of the €1tn-a-day (£865bn) clearing market for derivatives, acting as a middleman between buyers and sellers of complex contracts.
Mr. Rolet warned in 2016 that thousands of city jobs were at risk if London lost responsibility for clearing contracts in euros after Brexit though he said there were very few exchanges that could handle the business.
The New LSE chief, who is based in New York, spent his first seven years at Goldman advising exchanges and stockbrokers. He then worked as chief of staff to Goldman’s chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, when Blankfein was the bank’s chief operating officer.
From 2006 to 2009 he jointly ran Goldman’s business in Russia before becoming head of metals and mining. Last year he combined that job with heading Goldman’s market structure business in a return to advising exchanges.
Schwimmer will take over from David Warren, who has run the exchange as interim chief executive since Rolet’s departure. Warren will return to his job as LSE’s chief financial officer.
