New Chairman of the Athens Exchange and Chief Executive Officer of HELEX

ATHENS, Greece, October 26, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Hellenic Exchanges (HELEX) would like to inform investors that the Board of Directors, at its meeting today, tapped Mr. Socrates Lazaridis for the post of Chief Executive Officer of HELEX and Chairman of Athens Exchange, to replace Mr. Spyros Capralos.

In addition, Mr. Socrates Lazarids also assumes the position of Chief Executive Officer in the subsidiary company "Athens Exchange Clearing House."

The election of the new member will be put to shareholders for approval at the next General Meeting of the company.

CV OF MR. SOCRATES LAZARIDIS

Mr. Socrates Lazaridis studied at the Department of Economics at the University of Athens and continued his studies for an MSc at Queen Mary College of London, specializing in econometrics. In 1987 he found "Effect Ltd" which specialized in the development of financial software.

He joined the HELEX group in 1994 in charge of Financial Affairs at the Central Securities Depository (CSD). In 1995 he was responsible for the creation of the technology arm of the Group, "Systems Development and Support of Capital Market" (ASYK SA), in which he held the post of General Director, a post he held until May 1998 when he resigned in order to assume the post of General Director of the Athens Exchange (ATHEX).

In December 2000 he assumed the post of executive Vice-Chairman of Athens Exchange. Since January 2007 he has held the post of General Director of Clearing, Settlement and Registration at the HELEX Group.

From 1994 up until today, he has been responsible for all the large projects that have taken place in the Greek capital market such as:

    - The technological upgrade of the infrastructure of the Group (ASIS
      trading system in the 1994-1999 period, the installation of the OASIS
      trading system and the development of ATHEXNet - the exchange trading
      network, while also contributing to the dematerialization of securities
      project),

    - the creation of the derivatives market,

    - the partial privatization of the exchange up until the listing of HELEX
      shares in the stock market,

    - the drafting of the first rulebook governing the operation of the
      Athens Exchange in 2004, as well as the drafting of the regulatory
      decisions that proceeded it,

    - the implementation of the Common Platform project with the Cyprus Stock
      Exchange,

    - the creation of the Auxiliary Fund for covering counterparty risk,

    - the relocation to the new data centre at the Athinon Ave. building,

    - the creation of the X-NET network to interconnect members of the Greek
      market with capital markets abroad,

    - the unbundling of the clearing and settlement services.

Mr. Lazaridis was in charge of the negotiations with FTSE and the LIBA representatives which led to the upgrade, and subsequent maintenance of that status, of the Greek capital market to the developed markets.

Mr. Socrates Lazaridis was born in 1962, is married and has one daughter.

Contact: Simos Spyrou, +30-210-33-66-616, [email protected]

SOURCE Hellenic Exchanges SA