Interactive Brokers Group founder/CEO Thomas Peterffy to step down

Interactive Brokers Group Inc. announced that company founder and CEO Thomas Peterffy will step down during the third quarter in conjunction with his 75th birthday.

Peterffy will continue with the company as chairman of the board. Milan Galik, who has served as the Greenwich-based company”™s president since 2014, will become CEO.

Peterffy was born in 1944 in the basement of a hospital in Budapest, Hungary, during a Soviet air raid on the Nazi-occupied city. He moved to the U.S. in 1965 without a working knowledge of English and 12 years later he created T.P. & Co., the forerunner of Interactive Brokers Group. Peterffy was a key advocate in moving financial trading from manual to automated processes. Last year, Forbes estimated his net worth at $19.5 billion.

“I put all my energies into building this company for the past 42 years and there is nothing I would rather do than work here forever,” said Peterffy. “On the other hand, as I grow older, I must recognize that Milan will do a much better job running the company than I would. With him at the helm, the strength of our business and the quality of our platform that delivers our offering will continue to grow as Interactive Brokers becomes the largest broker in the world.”