Xavier Rolet

Early life and career

Rolet was born in Aix-les-Bains, France. He is the eldest of three children born to military parents. His early life was spent in Algeria and France. He served as a second lieutenant and Instructor at the French Air Force Academy, earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1984 and a post-graduate degree from IHEDN (Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defense) in Paris, in April 2008.

From 1984-1994, Rolet worked at Goldman Sachs in New York and London. At Goldman, he started on the international arbitrage desk in New York. Then he joined Credit Suisse First Boston as Global Head of European Equities in 1994, working there till 1996. After that, Rolet worked at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson from 1997-2000 as Global Head of Risk and Trading. He then worked at Lehman Brothers from 2000–2008, in New York, as co-head of global equity trading, in London, as head of European and Asian equities, and in Paris, as CEO of Banque Lehman Brothers. He joined the Board of the London Stock Exchange in March 2009, and became CEO in May. Under his leadership, the London Stock Exchange Group acquired MillenniumIT (2009), Turquoise Holdings Ltd (2010), FTSE Group (2011), TRS (2011), GATElab Srl (2012), EuroTLX Srl (2013), LCH.Clearnet (2013), Bonds.com (2014), ExactPro (2014) and the Frank Russell Company (2014) from Northwestern Mutual, the Asset management arm of which was sold in October 2015 to TA Associates and Reverence Capital Partners. In October 2015, LSE Group launched Curve Global, a new Futures Exchange co-owned with Barclays Bank, Bank of America, Citi, Goldman, Sachs, Societe Generale and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Personal

He competed successfully in several editions of the Dakar Rally, finishing 82nd in the 2009 edition with co-pilot Jean-Louis Juchault.

He is a Board member of LCH.Clearnet and MTS Group and a member of the Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School, a former Vice-Chairman of the World Federation of Exchanges WFE, an Honorary Fellow (FCSI/Hon) of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment CISI and a member of HM Treasury's Financial Services Trade and Investment Board. He is also a member of Prime Minister David Cameron's Business Advisory Group and of the Governor of the Bank of England's Financial Services Forum and of the Bank of England's Open Forum. in October 2015, he was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. In December 2015, he was appointed Echansonnier of the Echansonnerie de Chateauneuf-du-Pape