ICE's Jeffrey Sprecher: The Sultan of Swaps

After buying a $10 million mansion in Atlanta last year, Jeffrey C. Sprecher rolled up his sleeves and repaired the furnace himself. He also rewired the sound system. Now the 55-year-old chief executive officer of Intercontinental-Exchange (ICE), known as ICE, is busy remodeling the $25 trillion market for credit default swaps (CDS), the derivative contracts that played a starring role in the financial breakdown.

Sprecher founded ICE a decade ago as an online marketplace for energy trading. Since getting into the business of CDS clearing—serving as a middleman in transactions involving the derivatives—ICE has become dominant. Between its operations in the U.S., called ICE Trust, and Europe, Sprecher's company has cleared more than $10 trillion in such swaps; its closest rival, CME Group (CME), has cleared $192 million.