Australia's ASX appoints Helen Lofthouse as first female chief

(Reuters) - Australian bourse operator ASX Ltd on Thursday appointed internal candidate Helen Lofthouse as its first female chief executive officer, replacing Dominic Stevens.

Lofthouse, who will be starting her new role from Aug. 1 is entitled to an annual fixed remuneration of A$2 million ($1.44 million), the same as Stevens' yearly pay as seen in the 2021 annual report, ASX said.

"I am looking forward to helping shape ASX's future as we continue our transformation and leverage our technology platform to deliver further value," said Lofthouse, who was also selected as one of the World Federation of Exchanges Women Leaders for 2021.

ASX has been battling several software glitches in the past, with the most recent outage in November halting trading of its equities on their debut, forcing the country's market regulator to impose additional licence conditions to reduce future risks and upgrades.

Lofthouse currently serves as the group executive of ASX's Markets division - the company's largest revenue-generating business. She has served as the managing director at UBS and at multiple senior roles with U.S. lender JPMorgan, prior to joining the bourse operator in 2015.

During Stevens' tenure at the helm, which lasted nearly six years, the market value of ASX rose by about 65%, as of Wednesday's close.

Stevens will continue as the CEO until July 31 and has agreed to remain available to advise and assist with the transition until Sept. 30 after which he intends to retire, ASX added.

($1 = 1.3937 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Indranil Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)