Clara Furse

Dame Clara Furse DBE
Born	(1957-09-16) 16 September 1957 Canada
Nationality	British/Dutch
Occupation	Businesswoman,
Known for	First female CEO of the London Stock Exchange
Spouse(s)	Richard Furse (1981-present)
Children	3

Dame Clara Hedwig Frances Furse DBE (born 16 September 1957) was the Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange between 2001 and May 2009, and was the first female to occupy the position. In 2005 she was ranked 19th in Fortune magazine's Most powerful women in business list.

Biography

Furse was born in Canada to Dutch parents, and educated at schools in Colombia, Denmark and Britain. She graduated from the London School of Economics in 1979 with a BSc (Econ)

She was Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange Group from January 2001 to May 2009. During this period she was also a non-executive Director of Euroclear plc, LCH Clearnet Group Ltd., Fortis and a member of the Shanghai International Financial Advisory Council.

Before she joined the Exchange, Furse was Group Chief Executive of Credit Lyonnais Rouse from 1998 to 2000, and before that she spent 15 years at UBS.

Furse's career has spanned a broad range of global financial markets. She began her career in 1979 as a broker, joining Phillips and Drew in 1983. At UBS she became a Managing Director in 1995 and Global Head of Futures in 1996. During the 1990s she also served as a non-executive Director, Committee Chairman and Deputy Chairman of LIFFE, the UK’s first financial futures exchange.

Furse is currently an External Member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee, the statutory body responsible for the UK's macro-prudential policy, and a non-executive Director of Nomura Holdings Inc., Vodafone Group Plc, Amadeus IT Holdings SA and the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions. She is a member of the Panel of Senior Advisors to Chatham House and the International Advisory Council to Bocconi University. In 2012 she chaired the Lead Expert Group of the UK Government’s Office for Science Foresight Project on The Future of Computer Trading in Financial Markets.

In 2007, Furse was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in The World.

Damehood

She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.

London Stock Exchange

Furse listed the 200-year-old exchange on its own market in 2001. Very strong growth followed a major technology upgrade to ‘Tradelect’ and an international focus to its listings business, which prompted a record 5 unsolicited or hostile bids in under two and half years from late 2004 to early 2007. Deutsche Boerse, Euronext, Macquarie and Nasdaq (who twice failed to acquire the exchange despite garnering nearly 30% of the stock), launched bids at prices from £5.30 to £12.43. The exchange conducted an unprecedented number of successful bid defences before completing its merger with Borsa Italiana in October 2007, which provided the foundation for a diversification into derivatives, fixed income, clearing and settlement. Between 2001 and 2009 the exchange trebled revenues to £671m, quadrupled adjusted operating profit to £339m, quintupled EPS to 74.2p and increased its dividend eight-fold to 24.4p.

Fortis

Furse was a non-executive director of Fortis when the Belgian bank, in partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander, purchased ABN Amro in 2008. The acquisition led to the bailout of Fortis which was subsequently sold off in parts to the Belgian and Dutch States and BNP Paribas.

See also

• Deutsche Börse
• Frankfurt Stock Exchange

External links

• Clara Furse: A profile from the BBC (Jan 2001)
• London Stock Exchange Press release announcing Furse's appointment as Chief Executive.
• UK stock exchange defends its boss BBC news story (Feb 2003)
• BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour - Timeline:Clara Furse
• Profile: Stock Exchange boss Clara Furse a profile from thisismoney.co.uk (Dec 2004)