By Laura Matthews, Suzanne McGee

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Texas Stock Exchange announced a board of directors on Monday in its latest step toward building a national exchange to rival long-established platforms in New York and said it was gearing up to launch trading next year.

TXSE announced in June that it plans to register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with backing from BlackRock and Citadel Securities. It said on Monday it had secured $135 million.

The exchange also said on Monday that Rick Perry, a former governor of Texas and former U.S. energy secretary, will be a board member. Other directors include Rick Roberts, a former SEC commissioner, and Alex Bussandri, global head of strategy at Citadel Securities.

The exchange has also drawn staff members from Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, a division of the Intercontinental Exchange, as well as other trading platforms, it said on Monday.

“Texas Stock Exchange is pulling big names in preparation for the potential launch in 2025,” said Owen Lau, a senior analyst at Oppenheimer & Co, noting that the space is competitive.

Nasdaq announced last week it put in place a regional management structure for its global listings franchise and appointed Texas-native Rachel Racz, as head of listings for Texas, Southern U.S. and Latin America. It didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

James Lee, founder and chief executive of TXSE Group Inc, said the exchange plans to submit a SEC registration in the coming months.

After approval, he added that TXSE will execute its first trades by the end of 2025 and launch its listing early in 2026, making Dallas “a new hub for capital markets in the United States”.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Monday that the exchange will ensure that businesses have access to capital and that market participants have more choice.

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, is serving as general counsel of TXSE Group Inc and chief regulatory officer of the exchange.

Nicole Chambers, who handled the Texas market for Nasdaq, will run corporate listings. Jeff Karcher and Marc Cunningham, who covered the southeast U.S. and Texas while working at the NYSE, will serve as global managing director.

(Reporting by Laura Matthews; editing by Megan Davies and Bill Berkrot)