CME Group Appoints Gary Morsches as Head of Global Energy Business

CHICAGO, Sept. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced it has appointed Gary Morsches as Managing Director of its energy business. Morsches will be based in New York and will be responsible for leading CME Group's global energy complex, which provides leading benchmark products across the entire energy spectrum. He will join CME Group on September 30, 2011, and will report to Kendal Vroman, Managing Director, Commodity Products, OTC Services and Information Products at CME Group.

"We are very pleased to have Gary join the CME Group energy team," said Vroman. "Gary brings a history of success in building businesses in the energy sector that will be invaluable to us as we continue to build on our existing energy complex and offer innovative new products that help customers meet their business needs and manage risk."

The CME Group Energy complex offers the most benchmarks in its asset class, with market participants trading an average daily volume of 1.7 million contracts on CME Globex, CME ClearPort and the trading floor.  The NYMEX WTI crude oil contract, for example, is the largest, deepest, most liquid global energy benchmark, trading more than one million futures and options contracts daily. In options, approximately 98 percent of WTI crude oil and 50 percent of Brent crude oil are traded on CME Group's markets.

Morsches, 52, joins CME Group with 30 years of experience in the energy industry, most recently working as Partner and Managing Director for Boston Consulting Group where he advised clients in the energy space on business strategy and development.  Morsches also previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Conectiv Energy, responsible for the commercial, risk management, operational and construction activities for a 4,200 megawatt power generation fleet. Morsches also has held senior management positions for leading energy companies such as Mirant Corporation, Southern Company Energy and Marketing, Enron and Access Energy Company.  He was a member of NYMEX, helping to develop the exchange's natural gas complex, and began his career as a refinery process engineer with Diamond Shamrock Refining and Marketing.

Morsches earned an MBA degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Dayton.  

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk.  CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate.  CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago.  CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com. 

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SOURCE CME Group