Merc Chairman Melamed to Resign at End of Year
Leo Melamed, a tireless innovator and cheerleader for the futures industry, will resign from the leadership of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at year’s end “to recapture my life.”
Melamed, chairman of the Merc’s executive committee, explained the surprise announcement by saying that after 23 years of policy-making and trend setting, he was ready for a quieter life.
“I really want to recapture my life,” he said at a news conference. “I want to smell the flowers along the way while I can still smell something.”
Melamed, 57, said he was not retiring for health reasons or for reasons associated with the ongoing federal investigation of fraud at the Merc and the larger Chicago Board of Trade, the world’s two biggest futures markets.
He said he planned to continue trading futures through his trading company, Dellsher Investment Co., to write and to spend more time with his family.
Melamed also said he expects the Merc to launch its Globex electronic trading system, one of his pet projects, by June 30. Implementation has been delayed in part due to trouble in getting approval from the Japanese government for Japanese companies to trade on the system.
The charismatic and outspoken Melamed is widely recognized as the father of financial futures, which are risk-management tools for the financial industry.
Before Melamed, the futures exchanges were best known for trading agricultural commodities. The development of financial futures, beginning with the Merc’s introduction of foreign currency futures in 1972, fueled explosive growth in the industry and brought futures exchanges respectability in the financial world.
Melamed was chairman of the Merc from 1969 until 1971, when he stepped aside to become chairman of a newly created affiliate, the International Money Market. In 1976, IMM merged with the Merc and Melamed became chairman of the combined institutions.
In 1977, the Merc board created the office of special counsel to the board and named Melamed to the position and to the position of chairman of the executive committee.
The Merc board has yet to name a successor to Melamed.
