Toby Morris, the long-serving Head of Sales Trading & Execution at CMC Markets, has announced his departure after nearly 13 years with the company, becoming the latest senior figure to exit amid pronounced management turnover at the brokerage.

In a reflective LinkedIn post, Morris stated that November marked the end of his time at the firm. He expressed pride in building out the company’s Sales Trading desk “from a standing start” into what he described as a “genuinely global, centralised, multi-asset operation.”

A Series of High-Level Exits

Morris’s departure adds to a string of notable senior exits across CMC Markets over the past 18 months.

  • In February, long-serving CFO Albert Soleiman left abruptly, triggering a nine-month leadership gap.
  • By June, Deputy CEO David Fineberg — a 30-year veteran widely regarded as the CEO’s closest strategic partner — and ANZ head Matthew Lewis both stepped down from the board to “focus on new leadership roles,” marking the most senior departures of the year.
  • In October, the head of the institutional division, Richard Elston, also exited, a move that suggests the unit may be undergoing restructuring.
  • Morris’s departure in November now removes the leader of the Sales Trading & Execution function — the second trading division to lose its head in recent months.

CFO post was eventually filled in November, when CMC elevated Asia Pacific CFO John Cubbin to lead its two UK units, drawing a line under the prolonged period of uncertainty. CMC has not yet announced successors for either Elston or Morris.

Leadership Changes Against a Shifting Financial Backdrop

The leadership reshuffle is taking place amid mixed financial performance. While CMC delivered a 33 percent increase in pre-tax profit for the fiscal year, the result was driven largely by higher interest income and investing revenue, as trading net revenue declined by 4 percent, including a 12 percent drop in D2C trading.

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In this context, the departure of a trading and execution leader with more than a decade of tenure becomes even more significant, particularly as other experienced executives have also moved on.

In his LinkedIn post, Morris thanked his team and noted that he plans to take a break before considering his next role.

“Assuming I don’t do any permanent damage [on home renovations], it will be back to the drawing board in the new year to look at what comes next,” he wrote.

The series of exits culminating in the departures of two heads of major trading units points to a period of internal recalibration for CMC Markets as it navigates a more competitive, evolving landscape.

Source: Finance Magnates