Julia Hoggett has been a breath of fresh air as chief executive of the London Stock Exchange for the past two years. A sociologist by university background, she talks as if she genuinely cares about the role of the exchange in the UK economy – a concern that is often hard to detect within the parent company’s obsession with global data and analytics products.
She’s firmly within the new consensus that says core elements of the UK’s governance and shareholder-protection regime should be dismantled to attract more companies to London, as proposed by the Financial Conduct Authority this week (this column’s view: sadly, that pragmatic analysis may be correct). But she’s also produced genuinely innovative ideas, such as a plan to create a share-trading venue for privately owned firms as a stepping stone to a full UK market listing.
