Jeremy Penn, chief executive of London's centuries old Baltic Exchange will step down next year, the exchange said on Friday.
Penn, who took the helm as CEO in 2003 after previous top positions with international news agency Reuters, will leave next summer.
"It has been a privilege to work for the interest of the Baltic, its members and shareholders for the last 12 years and in many ways I shall be sorry to go," Penn said in a statement.
During his tenure, Penn rebuffed overtures in 2010 and 2013 from the London Metal Exchange (LME) over a potential tie-up and also faced heat from brokers over the launch in 2011 by the Baltic of the first central freight derivatives platform Baltex, fearing they would lose business.
Reporting by Jonathan Saul