A little less than seven years into the job, Australian Securities Exchange CEO Dominic Stevens has announced his plans to retire. Stevens, 56, says that he intends to step back from executive roles entirely despite his comparatively young age - however, he hasn't hinted yet at whether this will be an actual complete retirement, or whether he has other plans that involve, say, advisory or investment roles with other ventures.

"Now is the appropriate time for a new CEO to be transitioned into the company and to take charge of the next phase of ASX’s growth and innovation," he said in the announcement. He will remain with ASX until a successor has been found and a suitable transition period has passed.

Stevens joined ASX as an independent non-executive director in 2013 and was appointed CEO in 2016, after then-CEO Elmer Funke Kupper quit amid a $200,000 bribery scandal. His tenure was notable for extensive upgrading of ASX's elderly systems, with Stevens' own pet project being the full replacement of the exchange's core system with blockchain technologies. That replacement is set to complete in April 2023.

According to ASX, the upgrading - when completed - will take the average age of its technologies from over 20 years to less than 5 years, on par with a switch from Windows '98 to Windows 7. However, it's not entirely clear whether Stevens' departure will affect the initially projected timeline.

The ASX board of directors has engaged advisory firm Egon Zehnder to manage a global search for the next CEO.