Swiss to head new merged stock exchange

The Swiss, Werner Seifert, is to head the largest European bourse. Seifert will preside over iX, the new market created by the merger between the London Stock Exchange and the Frankfurt bourse.

The 51 year-old has been chief executive of the German stock exchange since August 1993, when he was appointed by Rolf Breuer, who’s now head of Deutsche Bank.

Seifert is credited with overhauling the Frankfurt bourse and successfully managing the installation of the electronic transaction system which marked its recovery.

Born in Winterthur in 1949, Seifert graduated with a doctorate in Business studies in Hamburg. During his career, he has spent nine years with the McKinsey consultancy group and 11 years with Germany’s biggest Re-Insurance company.

The head of the Credit Suisse bank, Lukas Mühlemann, who worked with Seifert at McKinsey, has praised his “boundless energy and creativity”. He’s also described as very ambitious. “Werner Seifert is always at the top,” adds Mühlemann.

Seifert has rigourously followed a strategy of expanding Frankfurt’s international ties, initially with Zurich and Paris, and culminating now in the merger with London.

swissinfo with agencies