I have known Mark Makepeace for over 35 years. I was at Reuters and Mark was at the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The bit of Reuters that I was in - the market data bit - is now known as Refinitiv and it is ironic that Refinitiv is about to be acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group. Ironic, because back in the day Reuters and the LSE were deadly rivals. The LSE had a domestic equities information service, TOPIC, which was in competition with Reuter products. It took many years for Reuters to get close to TOPIC's market share and Mark's help in getting us to understand what the market wanted especially in information of the FTSE 100 constituents was a key part of our success. I must point out that the help Mark gave us was what he would give to any vendor carrying LSE data.
Mark wanted his index products to be on more terminals - not just TOPIC - and I wanted Reuters products which showcased LSE data to be better. Mark and I saw the benefit of co-operating and that co-operation became a firm friendship which has lasted ever since.
It was a friendship that was frowned on by the powers that be at Reuters and I daresay that Mark experience the same at the LSE.
Mark was always entrepreneurial, and it was no surprise when in 1995 he convinced the LSE to set up FTSE. From a standing start FTSE began to challenge the industry behemoths, MSCI and S&P, to become a global leader in benchmarking, always innovating, shaking up the index industry and powering the London Stock Exchange Group to impressive revenue growth over the years.
Mark stepped down from his role as chief executive of FTSE Russell, a year ago and his book - FTSE - co-written with James Ashton is out today in the UK. I will not spoil the plot for you but the book which is available in all good book shops and on Amazon - in hard copy, audio and kindle -.is the story of how the small start-up Mark started turned into a 500-pound industry gorilla.
To quote from the Amazon summary of the book:
“There have been behind-the-scenes rows with chief executives of some of the world's largest companies, political in-fighting, diplomatic incidents, and even controversy over a pioneering push into responsible investing that began life as a conversation with James Bond actor Roger Moore."
To buy the book on Amazon, click here.
