Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME), the largest U.S. futures exchange, has appointed Arman Falsafi as Managing Director, Europe & Asia.
Falsafi, who has been instrumental in the dramatic growth of CME's GLOBEX® electronic trading platform, will relocate from Chicago to London where she will lead efforts to further expand GLOBEX's growing international customer base throughout Europe and Asia. She will oversee CME's offices in London, Tokyo and Sydney and will continue to report to Rick Redding, Managing Director, Products & Services.
"We continue to be aggressive in our strategy to make GLOBEX and our products more attractive and accessible to customers worldwide," said CEO Craig Donohue. "The fact that CME's June volume was 54 percent electronic, versus just 15 percent four years ago, suggests that we are successfully expanding the distribution of our products to new customers who are finding them to be an attractive addition or alternative to comparable Euro- denominated products. Arman's presence in Europe demonstrates our continued strong commitment to our international customers."
"Arman's efforts over the past five years have been critical in the execution of our global distribution strategy," said Redding. "In this new role, Arman will apply her strong technology background and deep knowledge of CME's products and services to focus exclusively on expanding GLOBEX distribution internationally."
Falsafi joined CME in 1999 as Senior Director, Technology Strategy and most recently served as Managing Director, Global Electronic Trading & Data. Since she was promoted to Managing Director in 2001, she has been responsible for CME's GLOBEX electronic trading business, information products and international offices.
Previously, Falsafi served as Director of Systems Integration for MCI Systemhouse's Capital Markets & Trading Practice from 1994-99, and held systems and software engineering positions at Swiss Bank Corporation/O'Connor & Associates from 1990-94, both in Chicago.
She earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1987, a master's degree in computer systems engineering from Northeastern University in 1990 and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago in 1997.