Sara Carter, Executive Director at CME Group, won Excellence in Trading Platforms (Derivatives) at Markets Media’s 2025 European Women in Finance Awards. We caught up with Sara to learn more.

Sara, how does it feel to be recognised for Excellence in Trading Platforms (Derivatives)?

It’s an honour to be recognised for Excellence in Trading Platforms (Derivatives), both personally for me, and as a women leader at CME Group’s BrokerTec. For me, receiving an award acknowledges the significance of hard work, accepting challenges, the power of a network and being surrounded with grounded, talented individuals.

On a personal level, it’s very special to be acknowledged after many years in sales and trading, seeing the development of electronification of the rates and FX markets and now to be in a position to do this in financing and repo. I work in an area which is often in the shadows of the outright markets but yet fundamentally underpins the success of those markets. I’ve been lucky enough to learn from some incredible individuals over the years whose knowledge, understanding and ability to articulate business challenges have really driven progress and allowed the ability to challenge traditional views and create market essential platforms such as BrokerTec.

I’m honoured to share this award with many inspiring women in finance, who are leading the way in their respective markets and demonstrating to those with aspirations that with the right attitude, integrity and openness to learning, anything is possible. If a girl from a tiny village in Derbyshire with no bus service can navigate this market, then anyone can!

What personal experiences or innovations do you believe most contributed to this honour?

Career success can be attributed to personal and professional experiences which instill a mindset of resilience, commitment to hard work and a proactive acceptance of challenges. Growing up in a tiny village allowed me to explore, be curious, develop an openness for learning and establish interpersonal communication skills. Within my life, I’d attribute the power of music to building my confidence, especially when it came to performing in front of large audiences, while competitive sport cultivated a team-oriented spirit.

Starting my career within Morgan Stanley I had an amazing variety of opportunities presented to me and I benefited from the sense of community, comradery and performance excellence. While at the firm, I worked in Investment Management, Operations, Interest Rates Sales & Trading and Bank Resource Management (BRM). Throughout this period we had multiple challenges, but working in a pressured environment in a competitive industry really furthered the need to operate at the top of the game.

My move into client financing furthered my repo market knowledge and understanding, working to develop new internal sales and trading platforms. When the opportunity came up to lead BrokerTec’s global repo team, I jumped at the opportunity. BrokerTec is the central marketplace for access to repo trading through a central limit order book (CLOB) or via request for quote (Quote) trading in both the cleared and bilateral markets. As the market increasingly becomes more electronified, I’m excited about what else BrokerTec can bring to the market, developing access to new trading modalities and continuing to pave the future for repo and securities lending.

What would you say to women aspiring to build a career in trading infrastructure or derivatives?

A career in any aspect of financial markets is incredibly rewarding. Be true to yourself, act with integrity. Continuously learn and question. Develop a deep understanding of the market and sector you’re in. Keep your aspirations high and feet on the ground, aim for excellence and success will follow. Apply your learning, and knowledge to challenge assumptions, while respecting others’ opinions and embracing adverse challenges. Utilising the product knowledge base, you build will allow you to advance technological infrastructure and new product design. Find a strong network with mentors and sponsors for your career, but also outside of work for support (thank goodness for school mums!). Anything is achievable with the correct mindset, and I truly believe that opening doors for others works in a circular manner.

Who have been the key figures in supporting your professional journey?

It’s incredibly important to build your supporters, to help enable and promote your career journey, pick you up when required and celebrate all wins no matter the size. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have an amazing family support network who helped create opportunities in my early years and my husband has been pivotal in helping me juggle work and life with our three young children.

I’ve worked with some incredibly talented individuals over the years, some of whom have remained firm friends and confidants. Gavin Platman, at Morgan Stanley Investment Management once gave me some excellent advice as a graduate: “always help people on their career journey as you don’t know when they will be your boss”. The Morgan Stanley rates team taught me to keep positive in times of stress thus boosting productivity. While Ciaran O’Flynn, Paul Elkins, and Gerard Murphy introduced me to the financing world and shared their extensive knowledge to widen my experience of the financial markets.

At CME Group, John Edwards, MD of BrokerTec, has been a pivotal mentor and sponsor, who has been monumental in my career and shaping the path of many others, supporting, opening doors, making introductions, passing on his incredible knowledge, being a sounding board and allowing me to have the opportunity to run the Repo business globally. John’s standing in the marketplace is defined by his commitment and deep-respect which he carries with an exemplary, friendly, diplomatic and rational demeanour—a true standard to aspire to.

What capabilities have been central to your achievements at CME Group?

CME Group has a large diverse talent pool. Having access to people with different skill sets and knowledge base has been pivotal. CME Group invests in their people, provides training, mentoring and support for employees. The global repo team that I work with are fantastic and I’m proud of their tenacity and drive to be successful. They really really care about the repo market and always strive to put their clients first.

The infrastructure and agility for development of BrokerTec Quote has led to the huge success of the platform. The central limit order books operate on Globex which the wider CME Group product suite trades on, ultimately combined, placing the BrokerTec platforms with access to a plethora of innovation, cross-product or technological development and differentiating ourselves from the competition. Examples of this include connecting our RFQ (Quote) and CLOB platform, offering futures access and creating BrokerTec Chicago which brings our cash US Treasuries and US Treasury futures together in a centralised location to allow clients to trade the spread between both markets.