Franke Leaving Post As Eurex Chief - Ferscha Will Be New Eurex CEO And Executive Board

Dr. Jörg Franke is leaving the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse AG, Frankfurt, on the best of terms at the end of the year and will resign from his post as chief executive officer of Eurex AG, at the same time. As of the same date, Franke's term as chief executive of the Eurex subsidiaries Eurex Frankfurt AG and Eurex Clearing AG, and as general manager of the Eurex derivatives exchange, will also end. The announcement was made by Deutsche Börse and Eurex after the Supervisory Board meeting of Deutsche Börse AG on Monday.

With DTB, the German options and futures exchange, and then Eurex, Franke played an important role in shaping the course of a success story that was unique in the global business of the derivatives markets. Franke, now 59, was one of the co-founders of DTB in 1989, and has headed that organization ever since, as well as Eurex, its successor, since 1998. Eurex is now the world's largest derivatives exchange. Under Franke's leadership, DTB, which got off to a late start by international standards, consistently pursued the opportunities offered by electronic trading systems. With the so-called remote-membership concept, which is aimed at linking participants to the trading systems regardless of their physical location, DTB managed to capture the market in the BUND future benchmark contract from LIFFE in London and also broke into the U.S. market. The exchange's presence in the U.S. market led to an alliance with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) in 1999: a/c/e, as the resulting joint venture between the two partners is called, got off to a successful start on August 27, 2000 with a Eurex-based electronic trading platform for electronic trading at CBOT.

The Supervisory Board chairman of Deutsche Börse AG, Dr. Rolf-E. Breuer, thanked Franke on behalf of the Supervisory Board: "Jörg Franke made an essential contribution to building up and expanding the worldwide derivatives markets. This also brought the development of Deutsche Börse Group a good step forward," Breuer said.

At its meeting on Monday, the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Börse appointed Rudolf Ferscha with one voice to succeed Franke on the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse, effective November 1, 2000. The 39-year-old Austrian is to be appointed chief executive officer of Eurex and the Eurex subsidiaries on October 4, 2000; the Eurex Exchange Council is to appoint Ferscha general manager of the derivatives exchange at its next meeting, at a later time he is to be appointed general manager of FWB Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Ferscha will lead this successful exchange Eurex in a new business phase. The change in the Eurex head at this time shall guarantee the continuity of the Management.

Ferscha, a lawyer and investment banker, became Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director of Goldman Sachs, Germany. in 1998. As a board member of Goldman, Sachs & Co. oHG, the Frankfurt based bank focusing corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, securities and derivatives and wealth management, he is responsible for finance, technology, operations, credit, compliance, legal and tax, and human recourses comprising around 100 staff. Further he is on the management board of Goldman, Sachs & Co. Wertpapier GmbH, the Frankfurts based warrants business. He was previously Executive Director at Goldman, Sachs & Co. International, London. From 1990-1997 he had built and led First Austrian International, an regulated securities house in London, where his responsibilities had included securities and derivatives sales and trading, risk management. He has more than ten years experience in the senior management of securties and derivatives trading and new issues business.