CLS Group Has Secured Two New Directors to Join Its Board

CLS Group announced that it has secured Gottfried Leibbrandt and Shuta Okawara, who will join its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

According to a press release shared with Finance Magnates, Gottfried Leibbrandt, the former Chief Executive Officer of SWIFT, and Shuta Okawara, the MD and Head of the Transactions Services Division of MUFG Bank, have been appointed by CLS Group, a financial market settlement processing firm, to join its Board of Directors.

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The CLS Group Board is made up of twenty-one directors with nine members of the board that are independent directors. Specifically, Leibbrandt and Okawara will join the Technology and Operations Committee. Though, Leibbrandt will join the Product Development Committee as well.

Turning Back to Leibbrandt’s and Okawara’s Vocation

Leibbrandt, who was the former Chief Executive Officer of SWIFT, took on the role from 2012 to 2019. Earlier on, he held various positions at SWIFT, which include Head of Marketing, Head of Standards and Director of Strategy and Business Development.

Before his experience at SWIFT, Leibbrandt became a partner at McKinsey & Company. During this time, he focused on financial institutions payments and transactions. Moreover, he sits on Yes.com’s supervisory board. He is also awaiting the publication of a book he co-authored on payments entitled ‘The Pay Off: how changing the way we pay changes everything’.

Currently, Okawara is the Managing Director and Head of the Transactions Services Division of MUFG Bank. Over his career, Okawara has consistently been focused on custody and clearing. He has been working on the settlement systems reform initiatives that have progressed towards mitigating settlement risks and standardizing securities and currencies settlement processes.

“We are delighted to welcome Gottfried and Shuta to our Board. Their specific experience in and knowledge of payments, transactions and settlement systems relate closely to CLS’s core focus and will be invaluable to us as an organisation as well as our members and other relevant stakeholders. We look forward to working with them as we continue to develop our role as a systemically important financial market infrastructure, strengthening resilience and efficiency across the global FX ecosystem,” said Ken Harvey, Chairman of the Board at CLS.

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