Introducing Tom Hine
Commodities market expert Tom has a prestigious city background (he’s a Simmons & Simmons and Debevoise & Plimpton alumnus) but most notable is his nearly 20-year tenure at the London Metal Exchange (LME).
Having assumed the mantle of General Counsel in 2010, he also led enforcement, was company secretary from 2016, and shouldered the roles of Company Secretary, GC of the LME’s clearing house, and was a managing director on the executive committee. He ran a team of 12 lawyers and six company secretarial staff.
“Commodities are very interesting in the financial markets because they are really where complex financial markets meet real, tangible things – things that you can really understand: like a lump of metal or a barrel of oil,” he explains.
The LME, along with other major exchanges like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange, the Singapore Exchange or Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange, plays a critical role in hedging price risk, price discovery and trading of metals – a key global commodity. It’s a sector that is currently seeing a surge of activity, not least due to the volatility created by the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the global pandemic.
Base metals are Tom’s bread and butter, but he is also well-versed in precious metals, having been Chair of the Oversight Committee for the world’s platinum and palladium market for several years, as well as having helped the LME to launch gold and silver contracts in 2016.
After 17 years operating at the heart of the commodities lifecycle, Tom will represent not only exchanges, but the financial market participants who trade on them.
In complement to Acuity’s strong pedigree in retail financial services, his arrival as a regulatory lawyer specialising in wholesale markets completes the Acuity offering. Tom is experienced in financial markets structure and emphasises the importance of transparency (he worked on MiFID II and the Bribery Act, for example). As the LME’s former head of enforcement, he was responsible for investigating and issuing penalties to entities in breach of its rules, and he has a special interest in the Market Abuse Regulation and its overlap with investigations.
Alongside Tom’s particular interest in corporate governance and ESG, he is experienced in complex agreements, joint ventures and partnerships. Among the big-ticket transactions under his belt was handling the LME’s 2012 acquisition by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange – a deal worth £1.388 billion. He has also won major victories in high-profile litigation in both the UK and the US.
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