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NYSE Euronext said it hired Thomas F. Callahan, who headed the global financial futures and options business at Merrill Lynch, to lead the exchange's pending move into U.S. futures.

The veteran Merrill Lynch executive will join NYSE Euronext in early July as executive vice president and head of U.S. futures. He will report to Hugh Freedberg, group executive vice president and head of global derivatives.

NYSE is at the center of the merger and technology wave that's transforming the global trading business. While losing market share in its traditional equity trading niche, the company is set to acquire the precious metals futures operation of CME Group following the latter's acquisition of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In developing a U.S. futures business NYSE is also likely to leverage its affiliation with Liffe, the European derivatives exchange based in London that is also owned by NYSE Euronext.

"The U.S. futures market holds great promise for NYSE Euronext, and growing our presence in this business reflects our strategic focus on product and geographic diversification," said NYSE Chief Executive Duncan L. Niederauer.

As head of Merrill Lynch global financial futures and options since April of 2005, Callahan was responsible for global listed derivatives for debt, equity, FX and commodity products. Other posts he held during his 15-year career there include head of global debt financing, co-head of global prime brokerage, head of European vanilla interest rate trading and sales, head of global money markets trading, and senior trader in government securities. He began his career at Prudential Securities in 1992, and is a 1991 graduate of Harvard University.