2009 ENTREPRENEURIAL CHAMPION AWARD
Jack Sandner
Retired Chairman, Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Chairman of E*Trade Futures
Retiring after 13 years as Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the longest serving exchange chairman in the history of the futures industry, Jack Sandner was elected Special Policy Advisor to the CME Board of Directors in January 1998. During the last two decades, under his leadership, the CME embarked on many groundbreaking initiatives creating innovative Global products, seamless Technology for global distribution and execution and a new business paradigm for the 21st century. The CME became the global financial services innovator and industry pacesetter for the 1980’s & 1990’s establishing an unparalleled track record of bringing products and services to market. Most recently, he was a member of the team that took the CME public December 6, 2002; the first exchange in the United States to be publicly traded.
Under Mr. Sandner’s leadership, the CME developed: Eurodollar futures, 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 global electronic trading system launched in 1992. In April 1993, he was appointed Chairman of GLOBEX. These products have become central to Global Finance and have powered global financial markets to new levels. In 2007 the CME traded a record $1.1 quadrillion notional value in risk management products and the CME is now a $20 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 90’s the modernization of financial services regulation. In December 1992, former President 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, former President Clinton appointed Mr. Sandner to the President’s Export Council, the premier National Advisory Council advising the President on International Trade. In 2001, he was appointed by Congress to serve on the Library of Congress’s National Digital Strategy Advisory Board (NDSAB) to develop a national digital strategy for the preservation, management and distribution of the government’s digital materials and information.
In the past decade, Mr. Sandner received numerous honors and awards including the Points of Light Award from President George Bush, the Horatio Alger Award, the Living Proof Award from Rush 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 as the U. S. Person of the Year.
Mr. Sandner was honored with an endowed chair “Chicago Mercantile Exchange John F. Sandner in Futures and Options Studies” at Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Roosevelt University and Lincoln College.
Born Nov. 3, 1941, Mr. Sandner, a Chicago native, graduated as valedictorian from high school and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965 from Southern Illinois University. He earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from University of Notre Dame, where he also received the Law School’s Dean Clarence Manion and the A. Harold Weber Awards and won the 3-year appellate advocacy competition. While at Notre Dame, he earned a fellowship to the Law Science Academy, where he won the Dr. Ruth Jackson Award and graduated with high honors. On May 21, 2006, Mr. Sandner was acknowledged with an honorary degree Doctor of Laws from the University of Notre Dame.
A member of the Illinois Bar since 1968, Mr. Sandner has been admitted to several courts including the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Sandner, who joined the CME in 1971, has served continuously on its board of directors since 1977 and is the longest serving, Board Director in the CME’s history. He was elected to a 16th consecutive two-year term to the CME Board in April 2007. After 22 years he recently 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.
He is a trustee of The University of Notre Dame, Roosevelt University, Rush University Medical Center, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Museum of Science and Industry of Chicago, The Auditorium Theatre Council Executive Board and Chicago Shedd Aquarium. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago and he is Chairman of The Cancer Institute at Rush University Medical Center. He sits on the boards of the National Futures Association, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and Metropolis 2020. He is also a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Executive Club of Chicago
Mr. Sandner is married to Carole Sandner and they have eight children.
