In addition, Robert Urtheil will become Managing Director and Head of Corporate Strategy & Public Affairs for the Euroclear group, replacing Anso Thiré, who will become head of the new Global Capital Markets division, effective 15 November.

Mr Claeys is currently Managing Director and head of Strategic Programmes, overseeing the key IT processing initiatives that will deliver a single platform for the Euroclear group. In his new role, he will oversee all IT application development programmes across the group. Mr Claeys joined Euroclear in 1982 and has held various management positions in different divisions since then.

Mr Urtheil, who joins Euroclear from Oliver Wyman, a leading consulting firm specialising in strategy, operations, risk management, organisational transformation and leadership development, will be a member of the Euroclear Group Management Team reporting to Ignace R. Combes, Deputy Chief Executive Officer. He and his team will focus on potential product and service expansion opportunities for the Euroclear group.

Prior to joining Euroclear, Mr Urtheil was a Principal at Oliver Wyman. Based in Frankfurt, he worked as a senior advisor to various clients in the investment banking and private equity sectors. Previously, from 2000 until 2006, Mr Urtheil worked for the Deutsche Börse Group where his roles, amongst others, included Director and Head of Trading & Clearing Market Development at Deutsche Börse and Director and Head of Market Development & Strategy at Eurex. During his earlier career, Mr Urtheil held various positions in the financial sector.

Anso Thiré, Managing Director and Head of Corporate Strategy & Public Affairs, will continue at Euroclear as Managing Director and a member of the Euroclear Group Management Team. Reporting to Ignace R. Combes, he will head up a newly formed Global Capital Markets team responsible for assessing and pursuing collaboration and expansion opportunities for the Euroclear group in the context of market infrastructure changes worldwide. Mr Thiré joined Euroclear in 1985 and has held executive positions in the finance and commercial divisions before taking on his current role.

Commenting on the management changes, Pierre Francotte, Chief Executive Officer of Euroclear SA/NV, said: "Transformation of the international capital market is accelerating with MiFID, the Code of Conduct and new European and trans-continental trading and post-trading initiatives redrawing the landscape. We are further strengthening our senior management team to reinforce our industry leadership in this changing environment. Wim will contribute his wealth of technical and business experience at Management Committee level, while Anso and his team will leverage the excellent strategic work they have been doing for the past several years.

"At the same time, we look forward to welcoming Robert Urtheil at Euroclear and benefiting from his broad and deep knowledge and experience spanning the trading and post-trading fields for securities and derivatives," Mr. Francotte commented.