The World Federation of Exchanges names Dr Pedro Gurrola-Perez as Head of Research

London, Monday 12 August 2019 – The World Federation of Exchanges ("WFE"), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, is pleased to confirm the appointment of Dr Pedro Gurrola-Perez as Head of Research.

Pedro joins the WFE from the Bank of England, where he led the Financial Market Infrastructures (FMI) Directorate Research Team. He joined the Bank of England in 2013 from the UK Financial Services Authority. His recent work includes research on the economics of distributed ledger technology (DLT) for securities settlement, and on managing market liquidity risk in CCPs. He has also led research on CCP margin models and back-testing methodologies. Pedro was a member of the CPMI-IOSCO Working Group on Digital Innovation, and has led projects on credit risk models supervision at the Prudential Regulatory Authority.

Pedro spent 15 years teaching at a range of well-regarded academic institutions, including the University of Barcelona and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). He holds two PhDs: one from the University of Barcelona, Spain, and one from the University of Montpellier, France. Pedro is widely published across key academic journals, ranging from the Journal of Financial Market Infrastructures to the Journal of Risk and the Journal of Futures Markets. He has won numerous awards and honours for his work including the 2007 National Award on Derivatives Research, awarded by the Mexican Derivatives Exchange.

The WFE Research team seeks to analyse the issues that matter to its stakeholders and foster the development of markets globally. The WFE is the definitive source for exchange-traded statistics, and publishes over 350 market data indicators. Its free statistics database stretches back more than 40 years, and provides information and insight into developments on global exchanges.

Pedro, who will start in the Autumn of 2019, will report to Nandini Sukumar, CEO of the WFE.

Bill Speth, who retired in June as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Research of Cboe Global Markets after 24 years, joins the WFE today as Interim Head of Research and then Senior Advisor to the CEO & Head of Research.

Nandini Sukumar, Chief Executive Officer, WFE said: “We look forward to welcoming Pedro to the WFE team this Autumn. With more than 25 years in academia, central banking and regulation behind him, he brings an unparalleled depth of knowledge of the market infrastructure space, along with a forensic approach to research methodology. Research and empirical evidence are the basis of the WFE’s policy work. We believe Pedro is the right person to take our research to the next level in the coming years, and he will bring even greater academic rigour to our analysis of market structure.

“We are pleased to welcome Bill Speth as Interim Head of Research from today. His deep experience in market infrastructure research will be an enormous asset to the WFE in the next few months.

“We would like to thank Siobhan Cleary for her great contribution to the WFE over the past four years, and wish her success as she returns to university full-time in the Autumn.”

Pedro Gurrola-Perez, incoming Head of Research, WFE commented: “I feel very excited to be joining the WFE, a venerable institution that I have engaged with for many years now. To be part of such an important association at this critical time for market infrastructures will be a real privilege, and I look forward to building upon the very strong research and public policy foundation already in existence at the WFE.”

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