Former City Index Director of Revenues Caroline Cooke leaves the FX industry

After almost five years at City Index, Caroline Cooke left her position as Associate Director of Revenues last summer.

This week, Ms. Cooke commences her new role, however the electronic trading industry has given way to pastures new, as she joins Swiss Re, a large reinsurance company with its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

Singapore-based Ms. Cooke’s new position with the Swiss company is within its APAC division in Singapore, following her move to the Far Eastern nation in October 2012 when she was promoted from Operations Manager at City Index to Associate Director of Revenues, the promotion necessitating a move from City Index’s London headquarters to Singapore.

Joining City Index in August 2011 as Operations Manager, Ms Cooke worked with Simon Bird, former COO of the company who left City Index in January 2014 to form his own consultancy, along with Patrick Cassidy and Dan who was Global Head of Trading and Research at City Index who embarked on a university degree, and is now looking for his next opportunity.

Ms. Cooke joins Swiss Re as Head Divisional Executive Officer, effectively meaning that she will lead the APAC operations of the company from a corporate and organizational perspective.

Educated at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in England, Ms. Cooke graduated in 2002 with a 2:1 in Chinese, French and Spanish, following her first degree at the Renmin University of China in which she graduated with a degree in Chinese in 2000.

Joining Primrose Associates in London in January 2004, Ms. Cooke entered the financial services industry as a financial advisor, where she worked for two and a half years before joining Charles Cameron & Associates as Head of International Mortgages in London.

After a year in Australia in a project management capacity, Ms. Cooke returned to London and joined City Index, rising to Associate Director level within less than two years at the firm, her complete tenure being four and a half years.

Ms. Cooke’s departure from City Index approximately coincided with the company’s acquisition by GAIN Capital which was completed in April 2015, the actual transaction between City Index and GAIN Capital at the time of bid in October 2014 was reported to be $118 million, however subsequently, it emerged that the net purchase price was actually $82 million, which included $36 million in cash.

Following the acquisition by GAIN Capital, interim CEO Mark Preston was retained but was soon let go, and has since joined the board of British spread betting company ETX Capital as a non-executive director.

Also leaving City Index at the same time as Ms. Cooke was former Marketing Director Joshua Raymond, who moved to X-Trade (British division of Poland’s XTB) in July 2015 where he was appointed to the position of Chief Marketing Officer.