CBOT Holdings, Inc. (BOT), the parent of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced today the Board of Directors of their joint venture company, Joint Asian Derivatives Pte. Ltd. (JV), and the appointment of the Managing Director of the JV.
The Board of Directors of the JV will consist of Mr. Hsieh Fu Hua, Chief Executive Officer of the SGX; Mr. Ang Swee Tian, Vice Chairman of SGX Derivatives Trading at SGX; Mr. Bernard W. Dan, President and Chief Executive Officer of the CBOT; and Mr. Christopher Malo, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development of the CBOT. In addition, Mr. Seck Wai Kwong, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Strategy & Business Development at SGX, will serve as an alternate director to Hsieh Fu Hua. Mr. Dan will serve as Chairman of the Board. The position of Chairman will rotate every two years between the CBOT and SGX.
The CBOT and SGX also announced the appointment of Mr. Chong Kim Seng as Managing Director for the JV. Mr. Chong will be responsible for developing Asian-based commodity products and launching the new JADE marketplace.
Commenting on the appointment of Mr. Chong, Mr. Dan said, "We are very fortunate to have such an accomplished and skilled professional in the commodities industry as Mr. Chong Kim Seng. His depth of knowledge of Asian- based commodity markets, his management experience at a variety of international trading companies, and his resolute focus on customer service are the qualifications needed to lead the development and implementation of JADE and the innovative products that will trade on this new exchange."
Mr. Seck added, "Mr. Chong brings with him a wealth of knowledge, having more than 20 years of experience in the international trading and management of commodities and natural resources. He has also played an important role in helping organizations he has worked in build up strong customer bases, as well as business and trading operations. We look forward to working closely with him to launch JADE."
A specialist in the trading and management of commodities, Mr. Chong has worked extensively in the Asia-Pacific region, India, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, and in a variety of areas, including food and feed grains; soft commodities like coffee, cocoa and sugar; industrial commodities like natural rubber and base metals; and energy commodities.
Mr. Chong was previously Head of Global Customer Solutions for R1 International Pte Ltd, a company specializing in the natural rubber industry, where he helped develop solutions covering a broad range of customer needs, including trading, pricing, risk management and logistics. Prior to that, he served as a Singapore-based consultant to Al Khaleej Sugar Co, a large Dubai- based sugar refinery, where he helped develop the company's sales, marketing and business development plans for the Asia-Pacific region. Mr. Chong also was the General Manager of the Singapore Commodity Exchange from 1993 to 1995, where he oversaw the management and strategic development of the exchange.
Mr. Chong has also served as Chief Operating Officer of RSP Aviation Pte Ltd. and General Manager of Cornelder Hoogewerff Pte Ltd, and has held trading positions with affiliates of Cargill Incorporated, USA in Singapore, London and Geneva.
The Joint Asian Derivatives Exchange (JADE) is a Singapore-based, electronic commodities derivatives market under development by Joint Asian Derivatives Pte. Ltd., a joint venture of CBOT Holdings, Inc. and the Singapore Exchange. JADE is expected to commence operations by 2006 and leverage the CBOT's infrastructure, connectivity and global market participants and SGX's position as a leading Asian derivatives exchange.
The joint venture company will develop commodity contracts to be traded on JADE. The new products will be hosted on the CBOT electronic trading platform, powered by LIFFECONNECT. All trades will be cleared by the SGX derivatives clearing house. As a result of the CBOT's recent extension of their telecommunications network into Singapore, the new market will leverage the infrastructure and connectivity of the CBOT's global market participants in addition to those connected to Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited (SGX-DT). In the initial phase, JADE will be operated by SGX-DT under its existing license granted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).