Larsen bows out of Icor

Jeff Larsen, founder of the online electronic inter-dealer broker Icor, has sold his remaining stake in the business and is stepping down as its chief executive.

Reuters has bought Larsen’s remaining Icor shares. The global news, information and technology company originally purchased half of Icor in September 2001, and now has full ownership.

“It was a business experience beyond compare and one that allowed me to work with wonderful people at both Icor and at Reuters,” said Larsen.

Larsen started Icor in January 2000 with Neil Chriss, a former portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The platform went live in early 2002 trading foreign exchange options.

Larsen started in the derivatives business in 1976 while working for a futures commission house called Madda Trading in Chicago, where he bought and sold hog and corn futures. After being a foreign exchange salesman at Bank of America and a forex risk management consultant at Citibank, he moved in 1985 to New York to set up Manufacturers Hanover Trust’s (MHT) derivatives business, initially selling forward rate agreements and swaps.

Over the next 13 years – and MHT’s merger with Chemical Bank and later Chase Manhattan – Larsen built the combined firm’s over-the-counter derivatives business from a two-man operation with US$1.5 million revenues into a US$500 million business with 500 employees, making the bank one of the world’s biggest derivatives houses.

Larsen said he now plans to take some time off after “a very busy four years”, while spending time watching how the off-Broadway play that he co-wrote, called Johnny Guitar, does. He also wants to spend some time travelling and “deal doing”. “It’s in my blood,” said Larsen.