Connie Voldstad to head ISDA

Per the WSJ:

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc., the trade group representing the global derivatives markets, appointed Conrad Voldstad as chief executive officer.

Mr. Voldstad will replace Robert Pickel effective Nov. 30. Mr. Pickel, who held the position for the past nine years, will take on the new role of Executive Vice-Chairman. He will serve on the association’s board and continue discussions with regulators globally, including the Federal Reserve of New York.

Mr. Voldstad joins ISDA after a tumultuous couple of years in which the derivatives industry came under heavy scrutiny during the financial crisis. Credit derivatives were blamed for exacerbating the crisis and helping cripple the financial system. Some types of credit-default swaps were responsible for the near-failure of American International Group Inc., which needed a massive bailout from the government.

Key on Mr. Voldstad’s agenda will be coordinating global initiatives to manage counterparty risk, and to continue to work on the guts of the derivatives market’s operations – smoothing things to help operations run around the world.

Over the past five years, the group has established standard contracts between counterparties, methods and processes for parties to settle up trades when defaults occur, helping establish a clearinghouse for the industry to better manage the risk any counterparty to a contract may pose to another.

Snagging Connie Voldstad is quite a coup for the ISDA.