Former Liffe chairman Sir Brian Williamson passes

Sir Brian, who spent forty years working in financial services including two stints as chair of the London market, passed away on Thursday.

Williamson started his career in the mid-1970s trading futures for Gerrard and National in Chicago, a tough baptism for the Englishman who studied economics at Trinity College, Dublin.

He quickly rose through the ranks to become a managing director at the discount house before founding in 1982 commodities broker GNI and becoming chair of that firm in 1985.

In his time at GNI, Williamson helped found the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) in 1982 and went on to become chair of the fast-growing derivatives market in 1985, a post he held first until 1988.

Williamson then became chairman of Gerrard & National plc for almost a decade before returning to Liffe as chair in 1998, partly to address the emerging threat of competition from Frankfurt’s Eurex epitomised by the loss of the Bund to the German market.

In his second stint at Liffe, Williamson helped revive Liffe’s fortunes and oversaw the gradual closure of the exchange’s iconic open outcry trading pits and the migration of liquidity to screens. He was knighted in 2000.

Williamson’s final act at Liffe was to sell the exchange to Euronext in 2002 which paved the way for him to become a non-executive director at the European group, a position he held for several years after stepping down as Liffe chair in 2003. Latterly he was also a non-executive at HSBC.

In 2007, Williamson was inducted in the Futures Industry Association’s Hall of Fame to commemorate his contribution to the global futures and options industry.

A popular and forthright figure, Williamson’s passing will be felt across the industry and FOW would like to offer our condolences to his family and friends at this difficult time.