Chi-X Australia, the alternative trading venue, has confirmed that former GETCO and Instinet executive John Fildes will replace outgoing CEO Peter Fowler on 1 May.
Chi-X Australia launched in Q4 2011 to provide competition in the Australian equity trading market to the incumbent Australian Securities Exchange. According to Thomson Reuters, the trading venue has captured just over 10% of trading in stocks in the S&P ASX 200 index.
Fowler, who joined Chi-X Australia as chief operating officer in Q4 2008, originally announced his intention to step down as CEO in November last year.
Fildes was appointed head of business development for GETCO in Asia in June 2010, having previously held the role of chief operating officer for Instinet Asia. In a wide-ranging career in the Asian and European financial markets, Fildes spent ten years with Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong and also held positions at index provider MSCI, the Financial Times, Standard and Poor’s and Reuters. He has also served as co-chair of the FIX Protocol Global Steering Committee and a director of FIX Protocol Limited and is a former board member of the Stockbrokers Association of Australia.
Chi-X Global CEO Tal Cohen said Fowler had made a “critical” contribution to the launch of Chi-X Australia and said that the venue operator would continue to work with the Australian trading community to improve investor performance under Fildes’ leadership.
Fildes said, “Over the past 18 months, the Chi-X team has demonstrated its ability to understand the needs of clients and establish itself as an integral part of the Australian market. I look forward to joining the team and working closely with everyone. Australia is well placed to extend its strong position as a financial services leader, both in the region and globally.”
Chi-X Australia is a subsidiary of Chi-X Global, an operator of trading platforms and trading technology provider owned by a consortium of financial institutions, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, GETCO, Goldman Sachs, Instinet, Morgan Stanley, Quantlab and UBS.