CFI Financial Group appointed Federico Cirulli as chairman today (Wednesday), replacing co-founder Hisham Mansour at the head of its board. Co-founder Eduardo Fakhoury will leave his vice-chairman role.
Mansour and Fakhoury will remain on the board as non-executive directors. CFI said its executive team and business plans are unchanged.
The handover puts an independent director in charge of the board after CFI separated day-to-day management from its founders in 2025. It comes as CFI adds regulated entities and reports higher trading activity across its international business.
Second Stage of Founder Succession
Cirulli joined CFI's board as one of three independent directors in November 2025. David Haglund and Prema Varadhan joined at the same time.
"We built CFI with the ambition for it to grow beyond its founders," Mansour said.
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The board changes extend a succession process that began in June 2025, when Ziad Melhem became group chief executive officer. Mansour and Fakhoury stepped down as managing directors at that point and moved to the chairman and vice-chairman roles.
CFI did not disclose whether Cirulli's appointment has a fixed term, whether he will join specific board committees or whether the chairman role carries executive duties. CFI described him as an independent chairman.
Growth Adds to the Board's Workload
CFI reported $5.34 trillion in trading volume for the first half of 2026. Second-quarter volume reached $3.03 trillion, up 31% from the first quarter and 101% from a year earlier, according to figures published by CFI.
CFI also reported more than 42.47 million trades during the six months, a 74% year-over-year increase. Active clients rose 8.4% in the second quarter from the same period of 2025. CFI did not provide the methodology behind those disclosures.
Its regulatory footprint reached 15 entities after Brazil's central bank authorized a local securities brokerage in April. CFI had entered Colombia through a representative office in 2025.
CFI later added direct access to more than 40 Dubai-listed stocks.
Melhem said growth across licensed markets increases the board's obligations. "Growth and scale bring obligations, not just opportunities," he said.
Other trading firms have also changed their boards this year. Britannia Global Markets appointed Lord Stanley Fink as chairman in August.
CMC Markets added banking lawyer Emma Earp as a non-executive director in April.
Cirulli Led Swissquote's UK Business
Cirulli has worked in retail brokerage and asset management for more than 20 years. He is chief executive officer of Atlantide Asset Management and serves on the board of Marzotto SIM, according to CFI's November announcement.
He previously led the UK businesses of ActivTrades and Swissquote. Cirulli was also chief executive officer of MIG Capital, where FinanceMagnates.com reported his appointment in 2013, and earlier headed business development for Southern Europe at CMC Markets.
