Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), the Middle East's leading energy futures exchange, has appointed former BNP Paribas head of marketing for Commodity Futures APAC Christopher Fix as chief executive officer.

Fix joins the Exchange after more than 20 years in the international commodity markets, having worked with BNP Paribas in New York, Paris and Asia since 1992.

He was most recently head of Marketing for Commodity Futures APAC, based in Singapore, a position he held for three years.

During this time Christopher's desk increased its customer base in Asia four-fold, an achievement which led to the desk being named Energy Risk's Energy Broker of the Year, Asia in 2011.

DME's chairman Ahmad Sharaf said: "I am delighted to announce today that the Board of Directors of DME has appointed Christopher Fix, an exceptional commodities industry expert, as chief executive officer to lead the Exchange forward in its drive to increase volumes and achieve true benchmark status for our flagship DME Oman contract.”

"When we restructured the DME in February of this year, we signaled our intention to place more emphasis on the increasingly important Asian market. The appointment of Christopher Fix as the new DME CEO, with the Asian market knowledge and experience he brings, is a real tangible expression of that commitment."

US-born Fix is fluent in French, speaks excellent Mandarin and conversational Russian. He is a graduate of SUNY- Binghamton and received a Chinese language diploma from Beijing Teachers College in China.

Fix will relocate to Dubai with his family and join DME on August 26.

"I am honoured the DME Board has placed its confidence in me to lead the Exchange forward at this crucial time," said Fix.

"I am very excited to be joining at a time when the DME has experienced record volumes in four out of the five months since the beginning of the year, new clients and a revised shareholder structuring.”

“The DME Oman contract is the emerging benchmark for East of Suez crude oil pricing, and I look forward to working with the staff, the Board, our shareholders, and our strategic partners to build on the DME's success,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service