LSE APPOINTS EX-LEHMAN EXECUTIVE AS NEW CHIEF

Posted February 13, 2009

LONDON – The Board of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) Group has appointed Xavier Rolet as its next Chief Executive.

Rolet, 49, has 25 years of international markets experience gained at a number of major financial institutions. He will join the Board of the Group on March 16 and will take over from Clara Furse as Chief Executive on May 20. Furse will remain as a director of the Group until July.

“I am very excited to be joining the LSE Group,” says Rolet. “It is a great company, drawing from a rich pool of talented employees. Its strategic position is unique, and its business prospects are excellent. I look forward to contributing to its continued success and to developing further, in Clara’s footsteps, the potential of this great international franchise.”

Between 2000 and 2008, Rolet was a senior executive at Lehman Brothers (Europe), where he was instrumental in developing its business into Europe’s leading agency broker and, most recently, CEO of Lehman in France. Prior to Lehman Brothers, Xavier held senior equity trading positions at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs. 

“With his deep knowledge of the Exchange’s customers and understanding of the exchange business, plus his strategic mindset, Xavier is uniquely well placed to take the Group forward in the next phase of its development,” says Chris Gibson-Smith, Chairman of the LSE Group. “We are very grateful to Clara for all she has delivered to the Group. In her eight years at the helm, she brought the Exchange to the public markets, transformed the scale of the business and its international reputation, and most recently led the merger with Borsa Italiana.”