FORMER IBM and Citibank executive June Felix was today named as the new boss of spread betting house IG Group.
She replaces company veteran Peter Hetherington who surprisingly stood down just last month amid falling sales.
Felix, pictured, who has spent most of her career in the US, is IG’s first female boss in a male-dominated industry.
IG and its rivals are facing a clampdown from regulators at home and in Europe over the sale of the riskiest products, amid increasing concern that most spread betting customers lose.
IG, which never formally explained why Hetherington was being replaced, has seen its shares tumble over the summer. Today they rose nearly 5% to 607p, which values the business at £2.15 billion.
Chairman Andy Green says: “June has a strong track record in strategy and product innovation and has successfully developed businesses of varying scales in the USA, Asia and Europe. Her broad experience makes her ideally suited to take IG forward.”
Felix, 62, was already a non-executive at IG, which she joined in September 2015. She is presently the president of Europe for Verifone, overseeing 2000 staff.
She says: “I am honoured to be asked to lead a business with such tremendous people and technology and with such a strong client centric culture.”
In June, IG was fined €500,000 by the French regulator for compliance failures.
