Release: #4861-03
For Release: November 3, 2003

CFTC Announces Resignation of Jane Kang Thorpe

Washington, D.C. -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the resignation of Jane Kang Thorpe effective November 21, 2003. Ms.�Thorpe was appointed as Director of the Division of Clearing and Intermediary Oversight (DCIO) in May 2002. The Division was created during a 2002 restructuring of the Commission to facilitate implementation of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA).

As the Division’s first Director, Ms. Thorpe built a team and an infrastructure to assist the Commission in implementing the CFMA’s new core-principles approach to oversight of key institutions in the commodity futures and option markets, including clearinghouses, futures commission merchants, commodity pool operators, and commodity trading advisors, as well as the self-regulatory organizations that monitor those institutions.

Under her leadership, the Division has supported the Commission in numerous rulemakings to modernize rules governing pool operators and trading advisors, to facilitate efficient order execution through bunched orders, to enhance performance disclosures, and to expand the scope appropriate locations for funds deposits. Under Ms. Thorpe’s direction, the Division has also initiated new risk-based approaches to the supervision of clearinghouses and self-regulatory organizations. Ms. Thorpe has also taken a leading role in the ongoing study of self-regulation in the futures industry that Chairman James Newsome announced in May of this year.

Ms. Thorpe will become the General Counsel for the Dubai Regional Exchange, part of the Dubai International Financial Centre. The Exchange is being established to trade securities, debt, and derivatives as part of an initiative to create a major new capital market serving the United Arab Emirates and the wider region. Ms. Thorpe will be joining her husband who has been in Dubai since August 2002.

In accepting Ms. Thorpe’s resignation, Chairman Newsome said “Jane has been a tireless contributor and the Commission has benefited immensely from the skill, experience, and energy that she has brought to the job. Jane already enjoyed a stellar reputation in this industry when she joined my staff and her accomplishments at the CFTC can only enhance that reputation further. Jane will be sorely missed but, on behalf of my fellow Commissioners and myself, I wish her every future success as she pursues this exciting new opportunity.”

# # #