Background

Leo Melamed was born as Leibel Melamdovich on March 20, 1932, in Bialystok, Poland. He is a son of Isaac M. Melamed and Fayga (Barakin) Melamed. In 1939 his family moved to Lithuania to avoid Nazis capture. A year later, Melamed's parent found a refuge in Japan and, in 1941, finally settled in Chicago, United States.

Education

Melamed attended the University of Illinois in 1952. He became a Juris Doctor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago three years later.

He received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Illinois in 1999.

Career

Melamed founded the futures commission merchants Dellsher Investment Company in 1965. Two years later he became a chairperson of Chicago Mercantile Exchange - American financial market company operating an options and futures exchange, he held the post till 1991, raising to an adviser and member of the executive committee in 1997. As a chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, he created the International Monetary Market (IMM) - the first futures market for financial instruments and the launch of currency futures. Melamed was also senior policy adviser.

In 1991 Melamed founded his own consulting firm named Melamed & Associates. He serves as the chairman and chief executive officer there.

In 1987, Melamed became an attorney and futures trader at GLOBEX - the world's first electronic trading system, as well as the chairperson till 1993. Melamed served as a member of the board of directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1988.

In addition, Melamed was an adviser to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as well as a member of council of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992. From 1993, Melamed held the position of a chairperson and chief executive officer of the company Sakura Dellsher, Inc. in Chicago.

In 2002, Melamed led the Chicago Mercantile Exchange membership to become the first American financial exchange to go public. In 2014 he was a board member of CME Group and the Strategic Steering Committee's chairman.

Nowadays Melamed also serves on the prestigious Chinese International Advisory Council of Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission.

Achievements

• Melamed is widely recognized as the founder of financial futures. He established the International Monetary Market.
  
  He was named the Man of the Year in 1975. He is the recipient of Human Rights Medallion from the American Jewish Committee, having received it in 1991. He also became the winner of Lifetime Achievement award from the Anti-Defamation League in 2001. In 2016, Melamed became a Lincoln Laureate.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Merits of Flexible Exchange Rates

    (This anthology of significant writings by eminent economi...)

    1988
  • For Crying Out Loud

    (A follow-up to Leo Melamed on the Markets, this book cove...)

    2009
  • Twenty Years of Financial History as Seen by the Man Who Revolutionized the Markets

    (A riveting inside look at the turbulent, controversial wo...)

    1993
  • Escape to the Futures 1996
  • The Tenth Planet 1987

Membership

Melamed is a senior fellow of the International Association of Financial Engineers.

• 

  He was a chairperson.

  National Futures Association , United States

  1982 - 1989

Interests

• writing, jogging

Connections

Melamed married Betty Sattler on December 26, 1953. The couple has 3 children - Idelle Sharon, Jordan Norman and David Jeffrey.

Father:

Isaac M. Melamed

Mother:

Fayga (Barakin) Melamed

Spouse:

Betty Sattler

child:

David Jeffrey Melamed

child:

Idelle Sharon Melamed

child:

Jordan Norman Melamed