During his tenure at the BSE L'Huillier's led the team that developed and launched the LeveL alternative trading system and designed its original integration with the BeX market.

He also had responsibility for the trading strategy and R&D of the BSX Group, which oversaw the Boston Equities Exchange - an all-electronic equities trading platform the exchange set up with five Wall Street banks.

L'Huillier joined the BSE from The Toronto Stock Exchange in 2003.

Turquoise says L'Huillier will immediately relocate to London and will start his new role on 25th November. He will report to newly-appointed CEO Eli Lederman.

Commenting on the appointment, Lederman says: "Having managed successful IT programmes for major trading venues, Yann brings direct, relevant and complementary experience to Turquoise. His design vision, commercial orientation and successful record of project execution will serve Turquoise well in our mission to deliver an innovative trading platform in an aggressive timeframe."

The Turquoise platform is being set up by a group of investment banks to compete head-to-head with domestic stock exchanges in Europe. The venture delayed the launch of the platform until the second quarter of 2008. The service was originally expected to be operational when MiFID came into force but will not launch until the second quarter of 2008. The original consortium is understood to be looking at recruiting other banks to join the venture.