TISE announces succession plan for Group Chairman

The International Stock Exchange (TISE) has announced that Jon Moulton will be retiring as parent company Chairman and stepping down as a Director at the end of the year.

He will be succeeded as Chairman of The International Stock Exchange Group (TISEG) by Charlie Geffen, who currently occupies the Chair role within the regulatory subsidiary, The International Stock Exchange Authority (TISEA).

Mr Moulton said: “We have significantly changed the business since I got involved seven years ago and I am pleased to be handing over the reins with it in a much stronger position. I’d like to thank my fellow Directors and the Executive teams for everything they have done to assist in making this difference and I’m delighted to be leaving the business in the highly capable hands of Charlie Geffen.”

Mr Geffen has been TISEA Chairman since January this year. He will remain in that role until the end of 2020, at which point he will relinquish his position as Chairman and Director of TISEA. He will become TISEG Chairman from January 2021.

Mr Geffen was previously at the law firm Ashurst for 32 years, the last five as the firm’s senior Partner and latterly, at the US law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher where, as Chair of the Corporate Practice in London, he led the growth of its Transactional Practice which secured a number of high-profile M&A mandates. He is a trustee of the Institute of Cancer Research and a member of Council at Surrey University.

Mr Geffen said: “The period since I joined the group at the start of the year has coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and the way in which the business has continued to operate smoothly is testament to our professional, committed teams. Jon will leave us in very good shape and I am looking forward to working with all internal and external stakeholders as we continue to improve the business.”

As a consequence of Mr Geffen’s appointment to the TISEG Board, an additional Non-Executive Director of TISEA will be recruited later in the year at which point there will be an announcement about the appointment of the new TISEA Chairman.

Anderson Whamond, Non-Executive Director of TISEG and Chairman of the Nominations Committee, said: “On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to place on record our utmost thanks to Jon for his extremely valuable contribution to the transformation of the business over the last seven years. At the same time, I’m delighted that he will be succeeded by Charlie, whom I look forward to joining the TISEG Board from the start of next year as we execute the next phase of the group’s strategy.”

Following the initial announcement in February, it has been confirmed that TISEG CEO, Fiona Le Poidevin, will leave the company on 27 July.

Mr Whamond added: “Once again, I’d like to thank Fiona for her significant contribution and commitment to the development of the company over the last five years. The process for recruiting her successor is progressing well, despite the difficulties and uncertainties posed by COVID-19. However, it will be some months before a successor is in place and in the meantime, the existing senior management team will assume those responsibilities, with additional oversight from the Board.”

Figures released today show that despite the continuing impact of COVID-19 on the broader market environment, volumes of new applications to list on TISE held up unexpectedly well during the second quarter of 2020.

Overall, there were 390 new listings admitted to the Official List of TISE during the first six months of 2020, which represents a rise of more than 60% year on year and takes the total number of securities listed on the market up to 3,030 at 30 June 2020.