Joseph De Feo is to retire from his positions as chief executive officer of CLS Group and president and CEO of CLS Bank at the end of the year, after five years at the helm of the bank-backed FX risk reduction platform.
A former head of IT at Barclays Bank, De Feo was one of the leading lights in the original G20 group of operations executives who dreamed up the CLS scheme. He took over the chief executive's position in 2000, undergoing a turbulent two years when the project was beset by IT software problems before steering it to a successful launch in 2002.
He will be succeeded in the top chair by his current deputy Rob Close, another former Barclays man and long-term veteran of the project. Close's position as deputy CEO of CLS Group and CEO of CLS Services will be advertised outside the group.
Close will take up his position under a new chairman, following the election of current deputy chair Mark Garvin to replace incumbent Fritz Klein who has chaired the CLS Group and CLS Bank since June 2003, and has served the maximum eight years as a director. Succeeding Garvin as deputy chairman of CLS Group and CLS Bank will be Gerard Hartsink.