Dame Clara Hedwig Frances Furse DBE (née Siemens[3]) (born 16 September 1957) was the Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange between January 2001 and May 2009, and was the first woman to occupy the position.
In 2012, she chaired the Lead Expert Group of the UK government's Office for Science Foresight project on The Future of Computer Trading in Financial Markets.
She was an External Member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee (FPC); a policymaker on the new statutory body and macroprudential regulator from April 2013 until October 2016.
During this period she was also a non-executive Director of Euroclear plc, LCH Clearnet Group Ltd., Fortis SA and a member of the Shanghai International Financial Advisory Council.
Furse listed the 200-year-old exchange on its own market in 2001, which prompted a record five unsolicited or hostile bids in under two and half years from late 2004 to early 2007.