Shock as LSE IT management is reshuffled

Turquoise CIO caught off-guard by announcement of new structure

The LSE is currently working on the replacement of its core trading platforms

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has appointed Antoine Shagoury as its new chief information officer (CIO) and handed his predecessor, David Lester, responsibility for the integration of trading platforms Turquoise and Baikal.

As director of information services, Lester will work on the unification of systems supporting recently-acquired trading firm Turquoise and its own dark-pool facility Baikal, while continuing to focus on growth opportunities within the information services division, the LSE said.

The news astonished Turquoise chief technology officer Yann L’Huillier, to whom the decision had not been communicated.

“This comes to me as a total surprise. Our management team has not been informed about this at all,” L’Huillier told Computing.

“As of today, the whole Turquoise team has no idea what is going to happen going forward,” he said.

A LSE spokesman said the firm would not announce the new IT management structure of the group until the Turquoise deal is completed in mid-February.

LSE’s new CIO will report directly to chief executive Xavier Rolet and will work alongside Tony Weeresinghe, the chief executive of MillenniumIT, the Sri Lankan software company acquired by the LSE last year.

Shagoury joins the group from the NYSE Euronext where he worked as a CIO since 2004.