Magnus Böcker

(Previously Not Ranked)

To compete with Tokyo, Hong Kong and other Asian market centers, Singapore Exchange has always strived to be faster. In 1999 it was the first to demutualize and became first in the region to bring securities and derivatives trading together.

Under Magnus Böcker, CEO since December, SGX is aiming to win the biggest race of all by assembling the world’s fastest, lowest-latency execution engine. That is, to be sure, a moving and disputable target, but it’s the objective of a $250 million initiative Böcker announced June 3. And Böcker, with a quarter century of exchange technology experience, surely knows whereof he speaks.

After climbing the ranks of the technology business of Swedish exchange operator OMX, he became CEO in 2003 and saw it through its 2008 merger with Nasdaq Stock Market. He then oversaw IT services, software development and related functions for Nasdaq OMX. Böcker, 48, says he was drawn to SGX because “Asia is becoming an important driver for global economic growth.”

SGX Reach, the ultra-high-speed platform being built on Nasdaq OMX technology in a new data center, will incorporate hubs in Chicago, London, New York and Tokyo by early 2011, he adds, making Singapore “more accessible to greater numbers of investors.”

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