The past few days have seen management changes at the very top of some of the world’s largest retail FX firms. Last week we reported that Saxo Bank had appointed a new Chairman, Dennis Malamatinas, and that its main outside investor TPG Capital was taking a more active role at the board level.
Today we learn that Oanda has replaced its founder, University of Toronto (editor’s note: my Alma Mater) computer engineering professor Michael Stumm as CEO, with K Duker (no typo – his first name is one letter). Duker spent the past four years building up Oanda’s Asia-Pacific business, after joining Oanda four years ago from Deutsche Bank’s eFX unit.
The common thread in both of these appointments, we believe, is the board at each company positioning each company for an IPO in the not-so-distant future. Companies with Founder-CEOs often replace the founders with “professional management” before bringing the company to public market investors. (Facebook’s IPO last week is an exception to that rule, with Mark Zuckerberg clearly positioned to lead that company for many years to come).
For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.