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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ForYourEyesOnly who wrote (5574)	4/21/1999 7:30:00 AM
From: flatsville	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

So, was it a case of get out while the getting is good or get him out while we may have time to salvage this mess? thestar.com April 20, 1999 TSE president suddenly quits ROWLAND FLEMING Bay Street speculates about reasons for move By Rob Ferguson Toronto Star Business Reporter The sudden resignation of Rowland Fleming as president of the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday raised eyebrows on Bay Street. The surprise move follows rumours about investment industry dissatisfaction with Fleming, who presided over the country's biggest equity market during a controversial period that included the Bre-X Minerals Ltd. mining scandal that cost investors billions of dollars. A brief statement from the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday said that Fleming is leaving the exchange immediately to ''pursue other interests.'' No further details were given. ''I find it a little bit curious,'' said Fred Ketchen, director of equity trading at Scotia Capital Markets, who was chairman of the exchange when Fleming was hired in November 1994. ''Unless there's something they want to do urgently, do people resign and leave immediately?'' Fleming, who is in his mid-50s, could not be reached for comment. Ketchen said that Fleming was in a jovial mood when they ran into each other at a church concert in Port Credit on Sunday night and that he gave no hint a resignation was coming. ''I was dumbfounded,'' Ketchen added. The Toronto Stock Exchange has been criticized for being slow in getting a new computerized trading system up and running, and for not doing enough to protect investors from companies like Bre-X, YBM Magnex International Inc. and Philip Services Corp. The three won inclusion in major TSE indices only to have their prices later collapse amid scandal. Ketchen said preparing for the year 2000 or Y2K computer problem has slowed implementation of the new trading system. ''I don't know if you can lay all that at the feet of Rowland Fleming.'' Fleming also helped Canadian stock exchanges chart a new direction with a blueprint for restructuring to face the challenges of new technology and competition for stock listings. ''We appreciate the work he has done,'' the TSE said in a statement. The restructuring, if approved by regulators, will see the Toronto Stock Exchange become the sole exchange for senior and blue-chip companies in Canada. That would leave the Montreal Exchange to handle derivatives trading and the merged Vancouver and Alberta exchanges to form a market for junior stocks. ''Rowland Fleming has championed the need for change,'' said David Brown, chairman of the Ontario Securities Commission. ''The momentum which we now have is due in no small measure to his determination.'' With the new initiatives on the way, now is a logical time for Fleming to leave, said Dan Sullivan, vice-chairman of the Toronto Stock Exchange, which handles 80 per cent of the country's stock trades. ''Someone has to follow this through.'' The search for a new president will probably take a couple of months and until then, the day-to-day operations of the exchange will be handled by a senior management committee. The Dublin-born Fleming was deputy chairman of National Trust, now owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia, before taking the TSE job.