The International swaps and derivatives association (ISDA), the derivatives industry trade body, has appointed Conrad Voldstad as chief executive officer, replacing Bob Pickel, who will move to the newly created position of executive vice chairman, effective November 30.
Voldstad is one of the pioneers of the derivatives industry, having helped build JPMorgan’s global interest rate swap group in the 1980s before moving to Merrill Lynch in 1988, where he was a member of the oversight committee responsible for liquidating Long term capital management in 1998. It’s believed that he was approached by the ISDA board to take up the position, and that no other candidate was considered for the role.
Pickel, who became CEO in 2001 after three years as ISDA’s legal counsel, will be more involved with strategic initiatives focusing on public policy and legal and documentation issues. Volstad, 59, will be more involved with the day-to-day aspects of running the association.
“The augmentation of our leadership will allow us to redouble our efforts,’’ Eraj Shirvani, ISDA chairman, told reporters on a conference call on Friday November 20. “We welcome Connie’s experience to the board, and his appointment will free up Bob to take up strategic initiatives we’ve been talking about for sometime.’’
The reshuffle of ISDA comes at a crucial time, as the over-the-counter derivatives industry seeks to maintain its stranglehold on derivatives trading outside exchanges. Regulators in the US and Europe are now drafting legislation that will force most derivatives traded outside exchanges to be processed through a clearing house and for some more standardised derivatives contracts to be traded on exchanges. The move could cut the profitability of those businesses substantially, while regulators also increase the amount of capital required to underwrite such activities.
“As you can imagine, after the market dislocation, a lot of national regulators are very interested in what ISDA is doing, so as a result we’re now talking to as many as 40 regulators world wide,’’ said Shirvani.
