NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Texas Stock Exchange, which is planning to launch next year, announced a board of directors on Monday in its latest step toward building a national exchange to rival long-established platforms in New York.

TXSE announced in June that it plans to register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, having raised about $120 million and backed by BlackRock ( BLK ) and Citadel Securities.

Rick Perry, a former governor of Texas and former U.S. energy secretary, was named to the board, TXSE said. Other directors include Rick Roberts, a former SEC commissioner, and Alex Bussandri, global head of strategy at Citadel Securities.

The exchange has drawn staff members from Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, a division of the Intercontinental Exchange ( ICE ), as well as other trading platforms.

The exchange also named Cam Smith as its global head of trading and co-president. Smith began his career working for electronic trading platforms and served as president of Quantlab, an automated proprietary trading firm.

Jeff Brown, a former acting general counsel at Charles Schwab ( SCHW ), is serving as general counsel of TXSE Group Inc and chief regulatory officer of the exchange.

(This story has been corrected to say that the TSXE aims to be a national exchange, not a regional one, in paragraph 1)