Deutsche Boerse, the company which operates the Frankfurt stock exchange, said on Monday that its chief executive Reto Francioni will step down next May, earlier than planned.
Deutsche Boerse said in a statement that its supervisory board "has discussed the succession of the chief executive officer ... and adopted relevant resolutions at its meeting today."
According to those resolutions, Francioni, who took over as CEO in 2005, "will retire from the executive board on May 31, 2015 ... and hand over the chairmanship to his designated successor Carsten Kengeter effective June 1, 2015," the statement said.
Just two years ago, Francioni's contract had been extended until October 31, 2016.
"Today's decisions have been taken by the supervisory board amicably together with Mr Francioni, who was closely involved in the complete process," the statement said.
It did not provide any reason for the decision to terminate Francioni's contract early.
Swiss-born Francioni will turn 60 next year.
His designated successor Kengeter "has many years of professional experience in the field of international capital markets and already held senior management positions at Goldman Sachs and UBS," Deutsche Boerse said.
At the same time, the contract of deputy CEO Andreas Preuss was extended until May 31, 2018, the company added.