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). If confirmed by the Senate, Giancarlo would replace Jill Sommers, who resigned in July (see NGI, July 8). The term begun by Sommers ends in April 2014. 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 1992-1997, a founding partner withGiancarlo & Gleiberman. A former chairman of the Wholesale Market Brokers’ Association Americas, Giancarlo received an undergraduate degree from Skidmore College and a juris doctor from Vanderbilt University School of Law. 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.