James September-October 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 43
T
he Wisconsin native was educated
as a chemical
engineer at the
University of Wisconsin and earned
his master’s in
business degree at Pepperdine. Jeff
Sprecher has been named as one of
Barron’s “World’s Best CEOs” for six
consecutive years, among a host of
other honors and awards for his leadership and philanthropy. And over the
last two decades, he has been active
in Atlanta civic and business groups
ranging from the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Buckhead Coalition to the
Atlanta Committee for Progress and
Georgia Tech’s advisory board.
But let’s go back to 1997. That’s
when Sprecher— living in southern
California at the time— took a leap
of faith and bought the small Atlanta-based Continental Power Exchange
for $1.00 per share for a total purchase
price of $1,000. His goal: Build a commodity and financial services company with a transparent market for
energy buyers and sellers to meet— regardless of their size. “From a young
age, I was an avid reader and fascinated by business and success-
ful leaders and tried to emulate those
attributes throughout my career,” he
said at the start of our interview. “In
business school I continued to finetune those elements. I also saw that
great companies are a collection of
great people, and it was my role as a
leader to best harness their talents.”
And a leader he certainly has
become. That important $1,000 purchase was the genesis of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
I reminded the ICE leader that
he joined leaders from Goldman
Sachs at the New York Stock Exchange this summer to mark the
25th anniversary of their company’s
IPO in 1999. It was Goldman, along
with other financial and energy
companies, that helped create ICE’s
customer base in the early years. He
has watched leaders of companies
come and go, so I asked what are
the constants of ICE’s approach to
problems that had to be solved over
the years. “We developed a culture
that is customer-centric,” he replied.
“Customers’ needs have always been
a driving force for how we innovate
and develop solutions. If somebody
takes an approach and fails, then
they need to admit failure and correct it. They won’t be admonished for
that. There are no scapegoats. And
when we succeed, we collectively
are rewarded.”
From the United States to around
the world, through Sprecher’s vision
and hard work, ICE began growing
its exchanges and clearing houses.
It began helping the world discover
the price for several asset classes-ranging from energy and agricultural
products to equities, interest rates
and credit.
When he started ICE, much of the
trading across all asset classes was
analog and done over the telephone.
“The company’s approach was digitizing these processes and making them
more transparent.” He adds that ICE
“continues to look for companies that
can realize efficiency,” and particularly “looks at companies that are early
adopters.” In this context, he underscored that “using the internet wisely
saves time and money.”
Consider just some of the major
successes Sprecher has achieved. He
says that on the international front,
when ICE bought the International
Petroleum Exchange in 2001, the
Brent Futures contract was focused
mostly on physical oil trading from
crude drilled in the North Sea. Today,
he notes “that the products have diversified from Houston to Abu Dhabi.
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