John F. Sandner

John F. Sandner, commonly known as Jack Sandner, is a former longtime chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange now the CME Group.

During the 1980s and 1990s Jack served as Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME),^[1] the longest serving elected exchange Chairman in the history of the futures industry, Upon his retirement as Chairman, Jack was elected Special Policy Advisor to the CME Board of Directors in January 1998 ^[2] and is a member of the Executive Committee.^[3] He also served as Chairman of the CME Foundation. Under his leadership, the CME embarked on many groundbreaking initiatives creating innovative global products, seamless technology for global distribution and a new business paradigm for the 21st century. The CME became the global financial services innovator and industry pacesetter for the 1980s and 1990s, establishing an unparalleled track record of bringing products and services to market. He was a member of the team that took the CME public on December 6, 2002; the first exchange in the United States to be publicly traded, and played a significant role in the acquisitions of the Chicago Board of Trade and the New York Mercantile Exchange. He also serves on the Board of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange ^[4]

Under Mr. Sandner’s leadership, the CME developed: Eurodollar futures contracts, the most actively traded derivatives product in the world; Stock Index futures and options, for which the Merc has become the world trading center; and GLOBEX, the 24/7 global electronic trading system. These products have become central to global finance and have powered global financial markets to new levels. The CME Group trades over $1 quadrillion notional value in risk management products and CME Group is now a $23 billion company.

Recognized as an industry leader, he has testified frequently before Congress, most notably the 1980 Gold and Silver Crisis, the 1987 stock market crash, and in the 1990s the modernization of financial services regulation. In December 1992, President Bill Clinton invited Mr. Sandner to address his economic summit in Little Rock. In 1995 U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin appointed him to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Financial Services. In 1997 he was asked to be the U.S. Chair for Financial Services at the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue Conference in Rome. In 1999 President Clinton appointed Mr. Sandner to the ^[5] President’s Export Council, the premier National Advisory Council ^[6] advising the President on International Trade. In 2001 he was appointed by Congress to serve on the Library of Congress National Digital Strategy Advisory Board (NDSAB) ^[7] to develop a national digital strategy for the preservation, management and distribution of the government’s digital materials and information.

Mr. Sandner, who joined the CME in 1971, has served continuously on its Board of directors since 1977 and is the longest serving, elected Director in the CME’s history. After 22 years he stepped down as Chairman and CEO of RB&H Financial Services, a clearing member of the CME to become Chairman of E-Trade Futures, LLC. Mr. Sandner has received numerous honors and awards including the Points of Light Award from President George H. W. Bush, the Horatio Alger Award,^[8] the “Living Proof Award” from Rush University Children’s Hospital Neurobehavioral Center and was named Man of the Year by the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Also, Mr. Sandner was honored by the American Ireland Fund, the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame and the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Person of the Year. In the fall of 2008, Mr. Sandner received the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Outstanding American Award. In 2009, Mr. Sandner received the Entrepreneurial Champion Award from the Chicago Entrepreneurial Center.

On May 21, 2006, Mr. Sandner was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Sandner was honored with an endowed chair “Chicago Mercantile Exchange John F. Sandner in Futures and Options Studies” at Northwestern University J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Roosevelt University and Lincoln College (Illinois).

Mr. Sandner, a Chicago native, graduated valedictorian from high school and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Illinois University. He earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from University of Notre Dame, where he also received the Law School’s Dean’s Award and won the three-year Appellate Advocacy competition. He earned a fellowship to the Law Science Academy, where he won the Dr. Ruth Jackson Award, graduating with high honors. Mr. Sandner is a member of the Illinois Bar and has been admitted to several courts including the United States Supreme Court.

He serves on the Boards of the University of Notre Dame,^[9] Roosevelt University, ^[10]Rush University Medical Center, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry of Chicago, the Auditorium Theatre and Chicago Shedd Aquarium. He is Chairman of the Cancer Institute at Rush University Medical Center.^[11] He also serves on the boards of the National Futures Association,^[12] and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago.^[13] He also serves on the Boards of Ryan Specialty Group and Virtu Financial LLC. He is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago ^[14] and the Executive Club of Chicago.

John F. Sandner

References

External links