(Bloomberg) -- The Chief Executive Officer of the Swiss stock exchange, Jos Dijsselhof, is stepping down after seven years in charge.
Dijsselhof is to be replaced by the bourse’s head of international exchanges, Bjørn Sibbern, effective 1 January 2025, SIX said in a statement Thursday. Sibbern joined earlier this year, and previously worked at Nasdaq, where he managed stock exchanges across the Nordic and Baltic regions.
“Bjørn has the necessary international expertise and leadership qualities to further pursue and accelerate the growth path of SIX,” Thomas Wellauer, Chairman of SIX said in an emailed statement.
Dijsselhof drove SIX Group AG’s strategic transformation, including the acquisition of Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles SA, the operator of Spain’s stock exchange, for about €2.8 billion ($3 billion) in 2020. That gave the Swiss operator a foothold in Europe following failed equivalence talks with the European Union.
The exchange’s most recent buy, among several other bolt-on acquisitions, was Aquis Exchange Plc, a UK-based trading exchange and data provider.
Sibbern will have to grapple with SIX’s Worldline SA stake and an environment in which European exchanges strive to stay competitive amid relatively flat volumes due to fragmentation of trading venues and liquidity dilution.
Dijsselhof is leaving to pursue a new professional opportunity in the Middle East, SIX said, without providing further details.
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