LeapRate Exclusive… LeapRate has learned that London based Retail FX group GKFX has gone outside the company to hire a new CEO, to replace its recently departed chief executive Brian Myers.
Rob Woolfe, GKFX
Joining GKFX as its new CEO is Rob Woolfe, formerly a co-founder and CEO of UK/Cyprus spreadbetting firm Capital Index.
We expect the company to make a formal announcement shortly.
Mr. Woolfe left ETX Capital (where he was Head of FX from 2008-2013) to found Capital Index in 2014 with financial backing from renowned Forex trader and entrepreneur Greg Secker. Mr. Woolfe quietly departed active management of Capital Index a few months ago with COO Joanne Page filling in since as interim CEO. Capital Index then hired former Destek and GAIN Capital executive Matthew Wright as CEO.
LeapRate exclusively reported at the beginning of April that Brian Myers had left GKFX after less than 18 months on the job. GKFX is controlled by Turkish entrepreneur Kasim Garipoglu, who had poured an additional $20 million of capital into the company in the early parts of 2017 with an eye to expanding the company’s retail and institutional FX businesses.
CFO Rod Martenstyn was then named interim CEO at GKFX, while a search was quickly initiated for a full-time replacement, leading to Rob Woolfe.
GKFX has grown to become one of the largest London-based Retail FX and CFD brokers, with annual Revenues exceeding £60 million. However in 2017 the company saw a 14% decrease in activity, at a time when some rivals (e.g. IG Group, Plus500) were setting Revenue records.