Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), a leading energy futures exchange in the Middle East, has named Owain Johnson as the new chief of products and services to the strategic management team of the exchange.

Johnson joins the exchange from CME Group, where he spent the previous four years as executive director in Singapore, covering the Asian energy and commodity markets.

Prior to that Johnson was an energy market analyst in the UK and South America, working for a number of high profile companies for about 10 years.

A regular speaker at international energy conferences, Johnson holds a Masters degree from Cambridge University.

Commenting on the appointment, DME chairman Ahmad Sharaf said, "Johnson’s experience in the Asian energy and commodity markets and his knowledge of the global markets is invaluable and will certainly contribute towards achieving DME’s goals and objectives."

"His addition to the team underscores the Exchange’s strategy of focusing more attention on the very important Asian markets, which are experiencing rapid growth in oil production and consumption," he stated.

Johnson will be joining DME from August 6. The move follows the DME’s shareholder restructuring, which was completed in February this year.

Johnson said he was thrilled at the opportunity to further expand on the growth of the Oman oil contract as the benchmark contract for the East of Suez markets.

"I believe my experience working with and understanding the needs of customers in Asia will help the team execute our goal of growing volumes on the DME, which have hit record levels in recent months," he added.-TradeArabia News Service