Hodgkinson (pictured) is currently chief executive of SWX Europe and a member of the management board of SIX Swiss Exchange and SWX Group, a position he has held since December 2006. He was director of market operations in the five years prior to this.

Hodgkinson began his career in the markets division of the London Stock Exchange where he worked for nine years and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School.

Yvette Roozenbeek, acting chief executive of SmartPool and head of business development for European cash markets at NYSE Euronext, says: 'We are delighted to appoint Lee as chief executive of SmartPool. He brings valuable experience, expertise and knowledge of European and international markets and their customers to his role and is ideal to lead the development of SmartPool.'

Hodgkinson adds: 'The introduction of MiFID was intended specifically to liberalise the European trading landscape. NYSE Euronext has been at the forefront of change in this new regulatory environment, introducing highly-competitive initiatives such as SmartPool, therefore expanding its trading offering to include a broad range of execution services for its customers.

'I believe SmartPool has a bright and exciting future, offering wholesale customers the opportunity to execute complex transactions efficiently and with minimum market impact.'

SmartPool began trading on 2 February 2009 and its non-displayed trading offer is fully compliant with the MiFID pre-trade transparency rules.