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Dame Clara Hedwig Frances Furse DBE (born 16 September 1957) was the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange between January 2001 and May 2009, and was the first female to occupy the position. In 2005, she was ranked 19th in Fortune magazine's most powerful women in business list. In 2007, Furse was listed among Time's 100 most influential people in the World.

Biography

Furse was born in Canada to Dutch parents, and educated at schools in Colombia, Denmark and Britain. She graduated from the London School of Economics in 1979 with a BSc (Econ).

Furse is the Chairman of HSBC UK, the ring-fenced bank of HSBC Group.

She is also a non-executive director of Vodafone Group Plc and Amadeus IT Group, S.A. She is a member of the Panel of Senior Advisors to Chatham House, a member of Bocconi University's International Advisory Council and in 2012, she chaired the Lead Expert Group of the UK Government's Office for Science Foresight Project on the future of computer trading in financial markets.

She was an External Member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee (FPC), joining the new statutory body and macroprudential regulator in April 2013 and standing down in October 2016. She was a non-executive Director of Nomura Holdings from June 2010 to March 2017. Until April 2017, she was also the lead independent director of the UK's Department for Work and Pensions.

She was Chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group a FTSE-100 Company, from January 2001 to May 2009. During this period she was also a non-executive Director of Euroclear plc, LCH Clearnet Group Ltd., Fortis and a member of the Shanghai International Financial Advisory Council. Before she joined the Exchange, Furse was Group Chief executive of Credit Lyonnais Rouse from 1998 to 2000, and before that she spent 15 years at UBS. Furse's career has spanned a broad range of global financial markets. She began her career in 1979 as a broker, joining Phillips and Drew in 1983. At UBS she became a managing director in 1995 and Global Head of Futures in 1996. During the 1990s she also served as a non-executive Director, Committee chairman and Deputy Chairman of LIFFE, the UK's first financial futures exchange.

Damehood

She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.

London Stock Exchange

Furse listed the 200-year-old exchange on its own market in 2001. Very strong growth followed a major technology upgrade to 'TradElect' and an international focus to its listings business, which prompted a record 5 unsolicited or hostile bids in under two and half years from late 2004 to early 2007. Deutsche Boerse, Euronext, Macquarie and Nasdaq (who twice failed to acquire the exchange despite garnering nearly 30% of the stock), launched bids at prices from £5.30 to £12.43. The Exchange conducted an unprecedented number of successful bid defences before completing its merger with Borsa Italiana in October 2007, which provided the foundation for a diversification into derivatives, fixed income, clearing and settlement. Between 2001 and 2009 the Exchange trebled revenues to £671m, quadrupled adjusted operating profit to £339m, quintupled EPS to 74.2p and increased its dividend eight-fold to 24.4p.

Fortis

Furse was a non-executive director of Fortis when the Belgian bank, in partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander, purchased ABN Amro in 2008. The acquisition led to the bailout of Fortis which was subsequently sold off in parts to the Belgian and Dutch States and BNP Paribas.

See also

• Deutsche Börse
• Frankfurt Stock Exchange

References

1. "Clara Furse: A stubborn City champion who batted for the Stock Exchange". The Guardian. 22 May 2009.
2. "FORTUNE's Most Powerful Women in Business". CNN. Archived from the original on 20 February 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
3. Smith, Adam (3 May 2007). "Clara Furse – The 2007 TIME 100". Time. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
4. "Press and Information Office – Press and Information Office – External Relations Division – Services and divisions – Staff and students – Home". London School of Economics. 30 January 2014. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
5. Pratley, Nils (26 March 2013). "Dame Clara Furse: being bailed out is no bar to serving on FPC | Business". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
6. "Fortis bailed out by three Governments". Finance Markets. Retrieved 3 February 2014.

External links

• Clara Furse: A profile from the BBC (Jan 2001)
• London Stock Exchange Press release announcing Furse's appointment as Chief executive.
• UK stock exchange defends its boss BBC news story (Feb 2003)
• BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour – Timeline:Clara Furse
• Profile: Stock Exchange boss Clara Furse a profile from thisismoney.co.uk (Dec 2004)

• 1957 births
• Alumni of the London School of Economics
• British chief executives
• Living people
• Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
• British people of Dutch descent
• 21st-century British businesspeople
• British women in business
• Advisors to Chatham House
• London Stock Exchange people
• 21st-century businesswomen