Jean Francois Theodore: The ground breaker

摘要

Jean Francois Theodore, the current deputy chief executive officer of NYSE Euronext, could have been just a brilliant civil servant in the French administration. But his first love for history and geography, and his early professional experience with-state companies in the French Treasury, turned this unassuming Frenchman into a global visionary. "Studying history and geography does not really pave the way to professional success, not even to a real job sometimes," he quips. "But modern history gives you a good insight to what economy and markets are all about." His moves in the financial realm were truly historical ones, first as chairman and CEO of the French stock exchange, Paris Borse, and later as CEO and chairman of the managing board of Euronext, the pan-European exchange. Though he was first the head of a cash equity exchange, Theodore grew familiar with derivatives, as the Borse gained control over the French options market, the Monep, and the French futures market, the Matif, in the 1990s. The Frenchman realized early on that electronic trading was a critical ingredient of success if European markets were to operate as networks.