Warren Langley Announced As CEO Of Nasdaq LIFFE Joint Venture

The Nasdaq Stock Market®, the world's leading electronic stock market, and the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE), the world's leading electronic derivatives exchange, today announced that Warren Langley has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Nasdaq LIFFE joint venture. Nasdaq and LIFFE have created this new corporate vehicle, which filed for regulatory approval two weeks ago, to develop the single stock futures market in the US.

The new market will operate on LIFFE CONNECT™, LIFFE's electronic trading platform, when trading begins later this year, and will make use of LIFFE's global distribution network. This provides access to LIFFE CONNECT™ from all three major time zones. The single stock futures will include the most actively traded equities on US markets and exchanges.

Langley joins as CEO as one of the most seasoned industry executive from the securities, options and futures markets. He served, from 1996 to 1999, as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Pacific Exchange. From 1987 to 1996 he was Chief Operating Officer of Hull Trading Company, a Chicago-based proprietary trading firm active in futures, options and other derivatives markets. He was also chairman of the executive management committee at Hull Trading. Most recently he was involved in the venture capital markets.

Langley is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, holding a Masters degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology. "Warren brings a wealth of expertise and experience to this position," said Richard G. Ketchum, president and deputy chairman, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. "With Warren leading the charge, the Nasdaq LIFFE joint venture will be well positioned to offer state-of-the-art electronic trading on the first day that single stock futures can start trading in the U.S."

Hugh Freedberg, LIFFE's Chief Executive, said, "Warren's track record is tailor-made to drive this unique venture forward as a customer-focused business. His broad-based executive management experience in the futures, securities and options industries uniquely qualifies him to lead the development of this market which will serve equities and derivatives investors world-wide." The Nasdaq LIFFE Joint Venture is designed to take advantage of the change in the U.S. regulatory environment that allowed for the repeal of the Shad Johnson Accord, thus allowing U.S. customers to trade futures on individual stocks for the first time on U S regulated exchanges.