CHICAGO (Map) - CHICAGO, May 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, today announced that Kevin Kometer, formerly Deputy Chief Information Officer, has been appointed Managing Director and Chief Information Officer effective June 30, 2008. Kometer succeeds James R. Krause, Managing Director and Chief Information Officer, who will retire on June 30 following 23 years of service.

Kometer will report to CME Group COO

"Jim has been an exemplary leader at CME Group, facilitating our growth and expansion through global electronic trading in all of our key products," said CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. "Jim, along with Kevin and his team have been an integral part of this growth, with electronic trading now representing 83 percent of our total volume. Jim and Kevin also led the seamless technology integration resulting from our historic merger between CME and the CBOT. We want to thank Jim for his leadership and congratulate Kevin on his new role as Chief Information Officer."

"As a leading technology company, CME Group continues to develop an incredibly strong and well-respected IT management team to provide our customers around the world with superior trading speed, reliability and performance," said CME Group CEO Craig Donohue. "We sincerely thank Jim for his years of extremely distinguished service, and we are pleased to name Kevin, a 14 year veteran of CME Group, to lead our talented IT team. Under Kevin's leadership, CME Group will continue to maintain our strong focus on technology, as well as on delivering operational and cost efficiencies to our global client base."

Average daily volume on CME Globex(R) in April 2008 averaged 8.2 million contracts per day, a 40 percent increase over the year-ago period. Total volume exceeded 224 million contracts for the month, of which 81 percent was traded electronically. In March, the company implemented an upgrade to the CME Globex electronic trading platform that significantly reduced message response time, already among the fastest in the industry. The upgraded CME Globex platform reduced CME Globex response times by more than 50 percent, from an average of 31 milliseconds down to approximately 13.7 milliseconds.

Kometer, 43, has been with the company for 14 years and most recently served as Managing Director and Deputy Chief Information Officer, where he had primary oversight for the development and quality management of CME Group trading systems for both options and futures trading, both on the trading floor and on the CME Globex electronic trading platform. He was also responsible for leading the effort to migrate of CBOT products traded on the eCBOT electronic trading platform to CME Globex during the CME/CBOT integration.

Krause joined the company in 1985 and has played an instrumental role in every major technology initiative that has taken place at the exchange during the last 23 years, including the design, development and implementation of the CME Globex electronic trading platform and the Clearing 21 clearing system. CME Globex remains the only electronic platform offered by any exchange that is available virtually around the clock every trading day, and under Krause's leadership, it has become the industry standard for speed, reliability and functionality. In 2007, approximately 79 percent of the exchange's volume was electronic compared with approximately 13 percent in 2000. In recognition of these technology achievements, Computerworld Magazine recognized Krause as one of its Premier 100 IT leaders in 2005, and CME has been named to the magazine's Best Places to Work in IT list since 2005. Additionally, the company has been named to the InformationWeek 500 every year since 2004.

CME Group (http://www.cmegroup.com) is the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange. Formed by the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), CME Group serves the risk management needs of customers around the globe. As an international marketplace, CME Group brings buyers and sellers together on the CME Globex electronic trading platform and on its trading floors. CME Group offers the widest range of benchmark products available across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, and alternative investment products such as weather and real estate. CME Group is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ under the symbol "CME."

The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, Globex and E- mini, are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. Standard & Poor's, S&P 500 and S&P, S&P MidCap 400, Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts and SPDR are trademarks of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. NASDAQ, NASDAQ-100 and the NASDAQ-100 Index are trademarks of The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. Nikkei and Nikkei 225 are trademarks of Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc. The Russell 2000 Index and Russell 1000 Index are registered trademarks of Frank Russell Co. TRAKRS and Total Return Asset Contracts are trademarks of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. GSCI is a trademark of Goldman Sachs & Co. Morgan Stanley Capital International, MSCI, and EAFE are trademarks of MSCI. FTSE/Xinhua China 25 is a trademark of FTSE Xinhua Index Limited. Dow Jones and Dow Jones Industrial Average are trademarks of Dow Jones & Company, Inc. CDR Liquid 50 NAIG is a trademark of Credit Derivatives Research LLC. These trademarks are used herein under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group and its products can be found at http://www.cmegroup.com.

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