J. Christopher Giancarlo, executive vice president of the brokerage firm GFI Group Inc., has been nominated by President Obama to fill an opening on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the White House said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Giancarlo would replace Jill Sommers, who resigned from the CFTC last month (see Daily GPI, July 3). The term begun by Sommers ends next April.

Giancarlo has been with GFI since 2001. Previously, he was the executive vice president at Fenics Ltd, a partner with Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner and from 1992 to 1997, a founding partner with Giancarlo & Gleiberman. A former chairman of the Wholesale Market Brokers’ Association Americas, Giancarlo received a BA from Skidmore College and a JD from Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Giancarlo is no stranger to Capitol Hill and has testified several times about the challenges of implementing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

Sommers was first sworn in as Commissioner in August 2007 for a term that expired in April 2009. She was then renominated by Obama to serve a second term.

Giancarlo, like Sommers, would serve as a Republican at CFTC. No more than three members of the five-member commission may be from the same political party. The CFTC currently consists of Democrats Bart Chilton, Mark Wetjen and Chairman Gary Gensler, Republican Scott O’Malia, and the seat vacated by Sommers.