The WFE's Women Leaders 2022 - Julia Hoggett, CEO, London Stock Exchange Plc

Member: London Stock Exchange Group 

Nominee’s name: Julia Hoggett

Nominee’s job title: Chief Executive Officer    

1. - Brief description of nominee’s role/job: 

Julia Hoggett is chief executive officer of London Stock Exchange Plc. She oversees the exchange’s primary and secondary markets and associated products and services from both a regulatory and commercial perspective. She has spent her entire career in capital markets and knows the key role they play in providing vital capital to companies and institutions and delivering returns for individual and institutional investors.

2. - Short bio (career highlights, education, interests/hobbies): 

Julia Hoggett joined LSE as CEO in April 2021. Previously, she was director of market oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), overseeing the conduct of market participants. Julia joined the FCA as the head of wholesale banking supervision, responsible for the conduct supervision of the investment banking industry in the U.K.

Prior to this, Julia was at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as a managing director running various fixed income origination businesses in EMEA for bank liquidity, short-term funding and the green bond market. Julia was previously a board member and CEO of DEPFA ACS BANK in Ireland and ran the group’s global funding programme. She began her career at JPMorgan in debt capital markets focused first on emerging markets and then on the sovereign, supranational and agency sector.

Julia holds a degree in social and political sciences from Cambridge University and undertook a research scholarship at Kings College, Cambridge University, on public policy in East Africa. Julia was included in Financial News’ 100 Most Influential Women in Europe’s Financial Markets (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2021) and the OUTstanding Top 50 (2013) and Top 100 list (2014). Julia has also been an active speaker on diversity and inclusion in the City for two decades.

3. - What were your professional highlights and challenges of 2021 (ie why should you be on this list): 

My first highlight has been to get to join and work with a remarkable and dedicated team at the London Stock Exchange. Given the nature of the year we have had it is hard to pick out one highlight from a business perspective. We have had an exceptional year—in 2021, the London Stock Exchange raised more IPO funding than in any year since 2007: 126 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, raising over £16.9 billion. The London Stock Exchange has therefore remained by a significant margin the No. 1 exchange in Europe, raising more equity capital than the Amsterdam and Paris exchanges combined, and the most equity capital outside of the U.S. and Greater China.

To me, capital markets are not about basis points and bid/cover ratios, but about the fundamental role they play in supporting the real economy, driving innovation and providing vital returns. It is therefore wonderful to see that 2021 also highlighted the role the London Stock Exchange plays in supporting new product development, growth and the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Through 2021, 39% of all IPO capital was raised by tech or consumer internet companies, with a combined market capitalisation of £31 billion at IPO. This has included Oxford Nanopore and Wise, the largest technology company to list on the exchange ever (based on market cap), using direct listing. We have also continued to focus on driving financing into the green economy – almost 15% of market debutants received the London Stock Exchange’s Green Economy Mark in 2021 and the total now listed with the Mark is 116. London’s Sustainable Bond Market (SBM) has also continued to grow and has supported issuers globally in the transition to net zero, with more than 340 active bonds on SBM and more than £100 billion raised in total sustainable debt finance.

But the transformation required to create a financial ecosystem that acts in the service of our natural ecosystem also requires innovation and change, and I was very proud to announce at COP26 that the London Stock Exchange was developing a Voluntary Carbon Market solution, providing a capital markets solution to enhance investment in carbon mitigation projects worldwide and support the just transition to net zero, which has already attracted interest from a wide range of partners.

In a job that is so multi-faceted, there are always challenges and my key focus must always remain that the London Stock Exchange opens on time, closes on time and does everything it needs to do in between. But I have to be honest, the role of the London Stock Exchange in the U.K. and global financial markets, the pace of change taking place in the markets and our regulatory landscape and the amount of innovation we can still introduce to better serve our clients and stakeholders means that the hardest challenge is to decide what new opportunities to focus on first and foremost. I am immensely proud of all my colleagues across LSEG who have embraced the vision for the exchange and worked tirelessly to make what we have done to date happen and what we are working on for the future a possibility.

4. - What and who inspires/has inspired you to achieve your professional success: 

I have always been driven by “exam” questions. I went into investment banking to learn more about emerging markets and I became a regulator because I believe passionately in the importance of the investment banking industry and that it matters to all of us that it is done well. I came to the London Stock Exchange because it is a privilege to have a role that might influence the capacity of the UK’s capital markets to be a driver both of the U.K. economy and the U.K.’s place as a global financial centre. So, what inspires me is very simple – it’s the purpose behind each of the jobs I have done. I have been very lucky in that regard.

The “who” is more challenging because I have had so many role models over the years, not least my mother, who through her own remarkable career has been a role model in teaching me to take what I do exceptionally seriously, but to take myself no more seriously than is absolutely necessary. In any job that involves stewardship, it’s the job that’s most important. Increasingly though, I am finding role models in the younger generations of women I meet and occasionally get to mentor. Their drive, determination and approach to the world is inspiring – not least my own teenage daughter who is so hard working, determined and fearless in throwing herself into new challenges that I am in awe of her.

5. - What advice do you have for other women who aspire to be in leadership positions: 

My advice might be somewhat perverse, but I have never had a plan in my career. Had I worked to a plan, I would undoubtedly not have become CEO of the London Stock Exchange! I have, however, lived by a very simple couple of principles. Give your everything to the role that you are in at the moment and trust that good opportunities will come from that, but don’t close yourself off to those opportunities when they arise. I have had a very varied career across financial services by trusting that adage, but it has meant deliberately not taking the “next obvious job” and instead moving on to answer a different exam question at various points in my career. Sometimes we can perceive that there is only one track to seniority or leadership and in fact I think there are many.