Management Team

Mr. Ang Swee Tian has an illustrious career that includes the position of CEO of the erstwhile Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX), which he helped establish in 1984. His career covers the successful merger of SIMEX with the Stock Exchange of Singapore (SES) to form the Singapore Exchange (SGX). From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Ang Swee Tian was President of SGX, which he moulded into a preferred listing and capital-raising venue for Chinese enterprises. He was also instrumental in establishing SGX AsiaClear, the OTC clearing facility that started operations in 2006. At the end of his term as President, Mr. Ang Swee Tian took on a new role as Senior Advisor to SGX until the end of 2007. Prior to his distinguished career at SGX, Mr. Ang Swee Tian served in several departments of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

In March 2007, Mr. Ang Swee Tian became the first official from an Asian exchange to be inducted into the Futures Industry Association (FIA) Futures Hall of Fame, which was established to recognize and honor outstanding individuals for their contribution to the futures and options industry.

As the Chairman of the board of SMX, Mr. Ang Swee Tian's experience, exposure and expertise will help mould the new Exchange to the helm of Asian finance and enable it to play a useful role in strengthening Singapore as the financial and trading hub of not only the continent, but of the world.

Mr. Jignesh Shah is the founder, chairman, and group CEO of the Financial Technologies group, a US$ 1.8 billion conglomerate and a global leader in creating and operating technology-centric financial exchanges for stocks, commodities, currency, and bonds among other asset classes.

Mr. Shah is often credited as a 'creator of modern financial markets' for his role in creating a successful public-private partnership (PPP) model for building world-class financial institutions in emerging economies. He founded Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) in 2003 to create 'markets for the masses'. MCX is India's No. 1 commodity exchange and the 8th largest in the world. The global exchanges he has founded include the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) in association with the Government of Dubai, Global Board of Trade (GBOT) in Mauritius, and Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) among others.

MCX's success in driving inclusive growth has inspired several countries and government entities to partner with Financial Technologies to set up new exchanges. He is a recipient of the 'Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year' award for Business Transformation. He has also been chosen by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Geneva, as the 'Young Global Leader' and has been presented with the 'Global Social Entrepreneur1 award by Rotary International.

Mr. Shah is deeply passionate about the role of markets in corporate social responsibility activities. He has launched initiatives in association with India Post' to provide commodity information to Indian farmers for price transparency and risk hedging, and with Rotary International to empower economically-challenged communities with education and training.

As Vice-Chairman of Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX), Mr. Shah brings his entrepreneurial flair that will contribute to the growth of the Exchange. His view of Singapore is that of a country whose financial markets will be the 'epicenter of trade' from Asia with the world.

Mr. Tan Soo Nan is the Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Pools (Private) Limited, a subsidiary of the Singapore Totalisator Board, a statutory board under the Ministry of Finance and concurrently the Chief Executive of the Singapore Totalisator Board.

Previously, Mr Tan was the CEO of Temasek Capital (Private) Limited responsible for direct private equity investments, for Temasek Holdings.

Prior to Temasek Capital, Mr Tan was the Senior Managing Director of DBS Bank, where he was in charge of institutional, individual and enterprise banking and the private client group businesses of DBS Bank. He was also a member of the bank’s Policy Committee, the bank’s highest communications and decision-making forum. In his 29 years with DBS Bank, his career spanned the entire spectrum of commercial banking, investment banking, asset management and venture capital.

Mr. Tan is a member of the Income Tax Board of Review, Goods and Services Tax Board of Review and the Football Association of Singapore Council. He also sits on the board of private and public listed companies.

As a Director at SMX, Mr. Tan will share his rich experience and knowledge of the financial markets and guide the exchange to realise its full potential. Mr Tan graduated from The University of Singapore with degree in Business Administration with Honours in 1971 and is an Associate of The Chartered Institute of Bankers He has completed the Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development. y vibrant Singapore.

Mr. Vijay Iyengar is the Founder and Managing Director of Agrocorp International Pte Ltd; a Singapore-based international commodity trading house. He has steered the company in less than two decades into a trading powerhouse in Asia-Pacific. The company specializes in the physical trading of agricultural commodities such as wheat, rice, pulses and beans, sugar, and oilseeds.

Agrocorp's impressive growth has attracted several honors and recognitions for Mr. Iyengar's leadership and entrepreneurial vision, including the prestigious Global Trader Programme by IE Singapore (first awarded in 1990 and successfully renewed till 2010). This award is testimony to a consistent annual trade turnover of more than US$ 100 million - a feat acheived by Agrocorp in the year of inception itself.

Agrocorp was ranked in the Singapore 1000 since the year 2000. The Singapore 1000 lists the Republic's top corporations ranked by their financial performance. Agrocorp was also ranked in the Singapore International 100 since inception of the award in 2005. Singapore International 100 is a national initiative to identify and celebrate Singapore's top 100 companies ranked by highest overseas revenue.

The company today annually handles volumes of more than 2 million MT of products to clients in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Middle East and Africa.

Mr. Iyengar holds a B. Tech (Chemical Engineering) from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology - Mumbai and an MBA from Cornell University. He has been part of various committees and currently holds some prestigious positions including Chairman, Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Mr. Iyengar will be a strong link between SMX and the South Asian markets.

Framroze Pochara is a capital markets expert and brings to SMX more than 20 years of expertise in the field. He has a track record of being involved in setting up successful exchanges - from National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), with which he was associated from its early days, to Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX), and now SMX. A postgraduate in management from the Bajaj Institute of Management, Mumbai, Mr. Pochara commenced his career with Tata Share Registry where he managed IPOs. He later joined NSE and headed its clearing house operations. From the early days of handling settlement of more than 1 million share certificates every week, Mr. Pochara successfully oversaw the transition from physical certificates to settlement in electronic form.

As Vice President Operations at NSE, Mr. Pochara managed several strategic portfolios including clearing and settlement operations, membership, listing and investor grievance. He also represented NSE on various SEBI committees for market reforms.

Mr. Pochara led the setting-up of Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX), the first commodities exchange in Dubai. As CEO of DGCX, his enthusiasm and passion was instrumental in getting the exchange operational within six months and attracting a huge amount of interest from players based in Middle East, India, and the Western markets.

Mr. Pochara is a regular face in many industry conferences and was a panelist/speaker in World Exchange Congress held in Dubai, SFOA Burgenstock conference and SIBOS 2006, Sydney to name a few.

SMX can draw on his in-depth understanding of market operations and market risk and will greatly benefit from the firsthand experience gained by him in setting up new-generation exchanges.

Mr. Linus Koh brings to SMX an in-depth understanding of the investment banking, securities and derivatives business, gained through over 25 years’ experience in the international capital markets.

Prior to joining SMX, he was Managing Director of Nutmeg Solutions Pte Ltd, a vehicle for Asian private equity investment and consulting. Previously he was a member of the executive committee at Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX). As CFO and Head of Strategy from 2006-07, he was responsible for the finance and treasury function, capital and enterprise risk management, investor relations, strategy planning, enterprise business architecture and program management. From 2004-06, he served as Executive Vice-President and Head of SGX’s products and services group, where he developed and introduced new products, nurtured existing ones and sharpened exchange services to promote participation.

Educated at Sheffield University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard Business School, Mr. Koh has held senior management positions in some of the leading global financial institutions, including Citibank, UBS, State Street Bank & Trust Co and Deutsche Bank in assignments based in Singapore, Boston & London.

Mr Koh has served on a number of public panels including the Singapore Foreign Exchange Market Committee, the Singapore Government Parliamentary Committee on Finance and Trade & Industry, and the Centre for Financial Engineering at the National University of Singapore. Mr Koh is currently a Council Member of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

As President & COO of SMX, Mr. Koh’s vast experience in integrating roles and aligning stakeholders in complex operating environments will help establish the highest prudential practices at SMX as it takes its place among the world’s leading exchanges.

Mr. Myron Scholes was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1997 for "a new method to determine the value of derivatives". The model provides the fundamental conceptual framework for valuing options, such as calls or puts, and is referred to as the Black-Scholes pricing model, which has become the standard in financial markets globally. Trillions of dollars worth of options trades are executed each year using this model.

Mr. Scholes is currently the chairman of Platinum Grove Asset Management, an alternative investments asset management company, managing US$5 billion. He previously worked with Salomon Brothers as a special consultant, managing director, and co-head of its fixed-income-derivative group. He serves and has served on the boards of various organizations, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and Dimensional Fund Advisors, a pioneer of passive investing which manages US$150 billion. Mr. Scholes taught and held prestigious positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, and currently is an Emeritus Professor with Stanford University.

As advisor to the SMX board of directors, Mr. Scholes will bring great intellectual wealth to the Exchange. His knowledge of the issues, challenges, and opportunities in the world of high-finance places SMX in an especially advantageous position in the global arena. This assumes even greater significance in view of Asia's growing role in the global markets. His intellectual caliber sharpens SMX's competitive edge in the top league of global mercantile exchanges. Stakeholders in SMX stand to benefit from his enormous experience and insight into the world of high-finance.

Mr. John Burbank has over a decade of experience investing in global equity markets. He is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of San Francisco-based Passport Capital LLC, a global hedge fund. The firm manages over US$ 4 billion in assets. Passport Global Fund was named as the top performing hedge fund in the world, based on the past three years of annualized returns.

Passport's investment process uses a combination of macroeconomic analysis to develop major themes and rigorous fundamental research on individual companies to create global portfolios. It focuses on the following industry/economy sectors: metals/mining, energy, India, global consumer, capital markets, internet/technology, healthcare/biotechnology, and sub prime mortgage CDS.

Prior to founding of Passport Capital in 2000, Mr. Burbank was consultant for JMG Triton Offshore, Ltd, a US$ 1 billion market neutral arbitrage fund. Between 1996 and 1998, he was Director of Research for ValueVest Management, a US$ 150 million long/short global value fund that focused on emerging markets and basic industries. Between 1992 and 1996, he held various management positions in start-up companies, active as a private investor.

A bachelor's degree holder in English Literature from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, Mr. Burbank's eminent achievements in the global investment arena and his interest in emerging economies qualify him as an ideal advisor to SMX. The new Exchange will find his advice particularly useful as it builds and implements a strategy to enhance international investment interest in the asset-classes to be traded on the SMX platform.

Mr. David Yeow is currently a partner in Rajah & Tann, LLP, a Singapore-based law firm. He is a member of the disciplinary committee of Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited (SGX-DT). He was earlier a member of its rules committee and has been the primary legal adviser to SGX-DT and its predecessor, the Singapore International Monetary Exchange Limited (SIM EX), for the past two decades.

Mr. Yeow acted for SGX-DT in the investigation into the collapse of Barings Bank and was a member of the representative group from SGX-DT responsible for its presentations on the same to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the Chicago Board of Trade.

Mr. Yeow is also the primary external legal adviser to the Singapore International Commodity Exchange Limited (SICOM), having originally advised on the privatization of its predecessor body. He is also a member of the rules committee of SICOM.

Mr. Yeow is on the Mediation Panel of the Association of Banks Singapore and was a member of the Debt Capital Market Working Group of the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Financial Centre Advisory Group Banking Sub-Committee.

Mr. Yeow's acumen in issues of regulation and compliance will help SMX implement best practices on its trading platform.

Mr. Charles Seeger is chairman of Financial Markets International, Inc, and a senior attorney with more than 20 years experience in capital markets development including the complex issues of the Non-Banking Financial Institution (NBFI) sector. He has served as a senior advisor to securities commissions, securities and commodities exchanges, central banks, finance ministries, and pension agencies in both emerging and developed economies. Since 1990, he has implemented assignments to develop capital markets in emerging markets through international best practices, legal and regulatory reform, and private law.

Mr. Seeger was Senior Vice-President and Counsel for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and has participated in the major developments between the U.S. SEC, CFTC, and Federal Reserve Board on conversion regulatory issues. He has drafted commodity exchange laws and regulations for several nations - including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia, Hungary, and cerTian Middle East countries - seeking modern commodity futures regulatory regimes. He was the principal author of 'Background for Financial Markets Development in Ukraine', published by USAID/FMI, in the year 2000. As a private practitioner of law, he served leading exchanges, broker-dealers, banks, insurance companies, and pension funds.

SMX is destined to be another high point in Mr. Seeger's distinguished career. As Counsel to SMX's Advisory Board, he will infuse the new mercan