Goldman Sachs banker David Schwimmer to replace Rolet at LSE
THE London Stock Exchange has appointed a Goldman Sachs banker from New York to replace Xavier Rolet, its previous boss, who left suddenly last year amid a major boardroom bust-up.
The exchange ended its six-month search for a new boss yesterday by handing the reins to David Schwimmer, the Wall Street bank’s global head of market structure, and a former chief of staff to Lloyd Blankfein, the Goldman boss.
The 49-year-old American has spent two decades at the banking giant, where Mr Rolet started his career, of which three years were spent in Moscow as co-head of the bank’s Russia business.
He also runs the bank’s metals and mining investment banking practice. He will begin the role on Aug 1 on a base salary of £775,000, 10 months after Mr Rolet suddenly left following a bitter row between the exchange’s board and The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI), one of its major investors.
His hire rounds off one of the most dramatic years in the exchange’s history, with last year starting with the LSE’S proposed £24bn merger with Deutsche Boerse being blocked by EU regulators and peaking with one of the City’s biggest ever boardroom battles. The LSE ended the year with no permanent head.
The exchange was forced to find a new chief executive much earlier than planned after TCI’S campaign to keep Mr Rolet in the job escalated.
Having built the exchange’s market capitalisation from £800m in 2009 to almost £14bn in 2017, Mr Rolet was popular among shareholders but was said to have a difficult operating style. Donald Brydon, the LSE chairman, said Mr Schwimmer was appointed “after what has been a comprehensive global search” and is known for his “robust intellect”.
Sources had said in recent weeks that the exchange was keen to announce a new boss well before its shareholder meeting on April 24. David Warren, the chief financial officer, has been running the business on an interim basis. Michael Werner, the UBS analyst, said that the appointment of a former M&A banker will allow the LSE to continue hunting for acquisitions.
“We view the announcement positively as it removes an overhang for the stock and given the high profile calibre of Mr Schwimmer,” he said.
David Schwimmer’s name was trending on Twitter yesterday morning as social media users asked if the actor who played Ross Geller in the popular US comedy Friends was about to become boss of the London Stock Exchange. While the internet reacted to the news with
Friends’ jokes and memes, the David Schwimmer in question is a New York-based Goldman Sachs’ banker who is an avid fan of American professional baseball team The New York Mets and an eager hiker. The active 49-yearold father of two might have to put those hobbies on the back burner as he relocates to London for the lucrative role over the summer, in a move that ends his two-decade run at the Wall Street banking giant. Those he has worked with in the US praised him yesterday, with Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein calling the banker a “terrific partner and friend”.