EXCLUSIVE: CME commercial head Julie Winkler takes international role

CME Group has shifted responsibilities in its senior management team with chief commercial officer Julie Winkler taking over the US group’s international businesses.

Winkler, who has been the group’s CCO since 2016, now has CME’s respective heads of Europe, Asia and Latin America reporting directly to her.

In addition, CME’s options products are now organised by asset class, so equity options are now under the equities head and interest rate options are the responsibility of the group’s head of rates.

Derek Sammann, CME’s senior managing director who previously ran commodities, the international businesses and options, is now focused on CME’s fast-growing commodities markets.

A spokesperson for CME group said: "As our international business continues to grow, including reaching record average daily volume, we have made the strategic decision to fold our international strategy into our client development and sales division under the leadership of our chief commercial officer, Julie Winkler.”

The spokesperson added: “This will further strengthen alignment with our sales and product services teams internationally while also enhancing our ability to serve the needs of our global client base.”

Winkler has been CME Group’s Chicago-based chief commercial officer since late 2016, running sales, product marketing, research and product development.

Previously, she was the group’s senior managing director of research and product development and index services from October 2014 to her promotion to CCO.

She joined CME Group in 2007 as managing director, research and product development after the US group acquired the Chicago Board of Trade where she worked in business and product development having joined that exchange in 2003.

Winkler also serves as a board member of S&P Dow Jones Indices, the joint venture between S&P Global and CME Group, and Valparaiso University, from where she graduated before her MBA at Quinlan School of Business in Chicago.

Sammann was promoted to senior managing director, global head of commodities, options and international markets in late 2021, having previously ran commodities and options for the group, and, before that, fixed income and foreign exchange products.

Sammann, who sits on two Commodity Futures Trading Commission committees, joined CME in 2006 from Credit Agricole where he was a managing director in charge of foreign exchange options and structured products.

CME’s commodities markets have been booming this year. Energy trading jumped 22% in May to 2.5 million contracts per day, while agricultural derivatives rose 9% year-on-year to a daily average of 1.7 million lots last month.

Metals trading jumped one third to 866,000 lots, including a record 19,689 lots of copper options trading a day on average, according to exchange data.

CME’s head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa Michel Everaert left the firm in April after two years running EMEA.

Serge Marston, CME Group’s head of EMEA sales, assumed Everaert’s duties on an interim basis and now reports to Winkler.