Approaching a decade as chief executive of Euronext, Stéphane Boujnah is the longest-serving boss of a major European exchange. With his current term drawing to an end in two years, he is starting to look to the future, while keeping one eye on the past.

Boujnah reads one history book a week, the latest chronicling the revolutions of 1848, when “there was a collective wake up in Europe”, he says.