Texas Stock Exchange nears launch with management team, board By Reuters

By Laura Matthews and Suzanne McGee

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Texas Stock Exchange, which plans to launch next year, announced a new board on Monday, the latest step toward building a regional exchange to rival long-established New York platforms.

TXSE announced in June that it plans to register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after raising about $120 million and being backed by BlackRock (NYSE: ) and Citadel Securities.

Rick Perry, former Texas governor and former U.S. Energy Secretary, was appointed to the board, TXSE said. Other executives include Rick Roberts, a former SEC commissioner, and Alex Bussandri, global head of strategy at Citadel Securities.

The exchange attracted staff from Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, a division of the Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ), as well as other trading platforms.

The exchange also named Cam Smith as global head of trading and co-chairman. Smith began his career working for electronic trading platforms and was president of Quantlab, an automated trading firm.

Jeff Brown, former acting general counsel at Charles Schwab (NYSE:), is general counsel of TXSE Group Inc and chief regulatory officer of the exchange.