Valerie Jarrett will step down as chairman of both the Chicago Stock Exchange Inc. and the Chicago Stock Exchange Holdings Inc. when her terms expire in April. Jarrett, who was recently promoted to president and chief executive of the Habitat Company, joined the board of the Chicago Stock Exchange Inc. in 2000. She became chairman of the exchange and the newly formed holding company in 2004.
Todd Abrahall was promoted to president of SIG Specialists, an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group. The executive was a specialist at SIG on the New York Stock Exchange floor for five years. Abrahall replaces Aaron Hantman, who held the president’s position for two years. Hantman joins the institutional group at Susquehanna as head of sales. As such he will replace Drew Milstein, who has been reassigned.
Andrew Fishkind joined Aqua, formerly known as eSpeed, a unit of Cantor Fitzgerald, as head of sales. Previously, Fishkind worked as a consultant, developing electronic trading platforms and products for the buyside and the sellside. The exec also worked at Bloomberg Tradebook and Instinet.
David Harris has been named president of the new CBOE Stock Exchange. Previously, he was a senior vice president for business planning and strategy at the American Stock Exchange. Harris has also served as general counsel of Nasdaq Liffe Markets and was an attorney with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. Earlier in his career, Harris worked in the division of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Jefferies & Company promoted Jason Griffith and Ross Stevens as co-heads of equities. They replace Scott Jones, previously sole head of equities, who left the firm after 26 years. Stevens joined Jefferies in November 2005. Griffith joined in March 2006. Previously, the executives were jointly responsible for the firm’s electronic trading services and equity financial products (derivatives). They will be responsible for all of Jefferies’ U.S. cash equity businesses, and will continue their direct oversight of the firm’s equity financial products businesses of equity derivatives, prime brokerage, securities lending, electronic trading and correspondent clearing.
Instinet named John Fay and Alex Goor as co-chief executives, replacing Ed Nicoll. Fay was chief financial officer. Goor was chief information officer. Nicoll will remain as chairman on the firm, now owned by the Japanese brokerage Nomura.
Pete Forlenza is heading up a new global equities group at Banc of America Securities that combines cash equities with derivatives, convertible bonds and prime brokerage. Forlenza was previously head of cash equities. Because of the reorganization, former derivatives chief Chris Innes will leave the firm.
