CME : Expands International Leadership

LONDON and CHICAGO , Sept. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the expansion of several leadership positions in its international business:

• William Knottenbelt has been appointed Senior Managing Director, International. He will oversee the company's core business growth, customer relationships and new business opportunities throughout Europe , the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia and Latin America , reporting to CME Group Chief Commercial Officer Bryan Durkin .
• Kevin Collins has been appointed Managing Director, Client Development & Sales - International, leading all sales efforts across asset classes for the EMEA, Asia and Latin America regions, reporting to Durkin.
• Martin Fraenkel has been appointed Global Head of Energy, overseeing the development and execution of CME Group's energy strategy in the U.S. and internationally, reporting to Derek Sammann , CME Group Global Head of Commodities and Options Products.

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"CME Group's international business continues to grow, now representing nearly 25 percent of our volume, and our footprint has expanded to meet our European, Asian and Latin American clients' business needs," said CME Group Executive Chairman and President Terry Duffy .  "The appointments announced today reflect our continuing commitment to serving our global customer base and to developing the products and services clients need, both in their own regions and worldwide."            

"William, Kevin and Martin represent strong leadership in our international businesses, where growth continues to outpace that in the U.S.," said CME Group CEO Phupinder Gill .  "These leaders will ensure we continue to reach our international clients by building on our London -based exchange and clearing house that serve both European and Asian markets, our trading repositories, our services such as the London Silver price mechanism, as well as bringing to market new products in our pipeline, such as a suite of European Natural Gas futures, physically delivered Cocoa futures and physically delivered Gold Kilo futures."

CME Group now operates 13 offices globally, with European headquarters in London , Asian headquarters in Singapore and Latin American headquarters in Sao Paolo.  In addition to CME Europe, launched in April 2013 , CME Group's infrastructure investment to serve both Europe - and Asia -based clients has grown through the opening of CME Clearing Europe in May 2011 , which provides clearing services for more than 200 OTC commodity and financial products as well as for CME Europe, and also through the CME European Trade Repository that began operations in February of this year.  In addition, CME Group, along with Thomson Reuters, launched the new LBMA Silver Price mechanism in partnership with the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) in August 2014 .

CME Group's global energy complex, led by Fraenkel, trades approximately 1.6 million contracts a day and includes the world's leading benchmark NYMEX WTI, Brent, Gasoline, Heating Oil and Henry Hub Natural Gas futures and options contracts. 

About Knottenbelt, Collins and Fraenkel

Knottenbelt joined the company in 2011 and previously led the firm's European business.  Prior to joining CME Group, Knottenbelt most recently served as Global Head of Futures for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). He also served as Global Head of Central Counterparty Clearing and held a number of leadership roles at RBS and its affiliates during the past 25 years, including Global head of Futures, FX and Interest rate derivatives prime brokerage. He began his career trading commodities at C Czarnikow commodity trading house. He also served as an Executive board member at both the Futures Industry Association (FIA) and the Futures Options Association.

Collins joined the company in 2012 and previously led the company's sales team covering global banks. Prior to joining CME, Collins served as Managing Director, Head of Futures for North America for RBS.  He also served as Managing Principal for Mannahatta Partners, and as Global Head of Futures and Options at ICAP.  Collins also served as Managing Director, Global Head of Futures and Options for Deutsche Bank and Regional Head of Deutsche Bank's Asia futures and options business.  He also held futures and options sales roles for Barclays Bank, BZW Securities, First National Bank of Chicago and GNI Ltd.  Collins earned a Bachelor's degree in commerce from University College Cork.  He is a former Director of FIA and The Clearing Corporation.

Fraenkel joined the company in 2013 with more than 25 years of experience in global commodity markets. Before joining CME as Managing Director, International Energy, Fraenkel was Global Head of Commodities at Credit Agricole CIB, Global Head of Energy, Base Metals and Agriculture at JP Morgan Chase, and Chairman of the London Gold Market Fixing Ltd., which operates the London Gold Fix, from 2002 to 2004. He started his career at Phibro in New York . Fraenkel earned a Bachelor's degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Balliol College, Oxford, a Master's degree in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and an MBA from Insead in France .

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk.  CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate.  CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago.  CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago , Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc.  KCBOT, KCBT and Kansas City Board of Trade are trademarks of The Board of Trade of Kansas City, Missouri , Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com.

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SOURCE CME Group