Winners
Investment/Financial Services
When Terry Duffy, executive chairman, and Craig Donohue, CEO, joined the CME Group leadership team, the company was at a crossroads, facing a struggle between the historical focus on floor trading and the growing demand for electronic trading.
The company was facing increasing competition, and CME needed to break out of its historic mold, become more nimble and competitive, and think differently. Even though the company had an enviable track record of innovation, one of the biggest challenges Duffy and Donohue faced was to rally the exchange membership and gain consensus for radical change.
After months of heated debate, the duo convinced the company to embrace a new paradigm essential for its progress and success going forward. In 2002, CME became the first financial exchange in the U.S. to go public. Converting from a private, nonprofit membership organization to a public company required strong leadership and an intense change-management process. But it also fundamentally transformed the business, allowing CME Group to broaden its focus from serving the floor-based membership to providing efficient trading and clearing services to all of its global customers, which include some of the largest financial institutions in the world.
Duffy and Donohue believe that it is both a responsibility and a privilege to give back to the communities in which its members and employees live and do business. The company operates four charitable foundations that have collectively distributed tens of millions of dollars to worthwhile charities. It also has a matching gift program and a community outreach program whereby CME members and employees volunteer their time in the community.
Through these programs, the company is able to lend a hand to those who need it most.
For More Information: CME Group, www.cmegroup.com
