Advisory Board Richard L. Sandor, Ph.D., Dr. Sc.h.c.
Richard L. Sandor (Ph.D., Dr. sc. h. c.) is CEO of Environmental Financial Products (EFP) which was the incubator to the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the American Financial Exchange (AFX), of which Dr. Sandor also serves as Chairman Emeritus. AFX is an electronic marketplace for small and mid-sized banks to lend and borrow short-term funds. Previously, he was the former Chairman and CEO of the Chicago Climate Exchange and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Environmental Financial Products LLC (EFP), which specializes in inventing, designing, and developing new financial markets with a special emphasis on investment advisory services. EFP was established in 1998 and was the predecessor company and incubator to the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the European Climate Exchange (ECX) and the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE).
A financial innovator known as the “father of financial futures,” he has been at the epicenter of environmental and financial markets for more than four decades. He founded what became the Climate Exchange family of companies including: the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the world’s first and North America’s only voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system; the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE), the world’s leading futures exchange for environmental products; and the European Climate Exchange (ECX), Europe’s leading exchange operating in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. Additional global affiliates included the Tianjin Climate Exchange in China, the Montreal Climate Exchange in Canada and Envex in Australia. Sandor is a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Finance at Guanghua School of Management at Peking University and a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of Guanghua School of Management at Peking University and a member of the TERI School of Management Advisory Committee in India. Sandor previously taught at the University of California Berkeley, Stanford University, Columbia University Graduate School of Business and at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. While on sabbatical from Berkeley in the early 1970s he served as vice president and chief economist of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). It was at that time that he earned the reputation as the principal architect of the interest-rate futures market. Sandor was honored by the City of Chicago in 1992 for his contribution to the creation of financial futures and his recognition as the “father of financial futures.” In October 2007, Dr. Sandor was honored as one of TIME Magazine’s “Heroes of the Environment” for his work as the “Father of Carbon Trading.” In August 2002 Dr. Sandor was first chosen by Time magazine as one of its “Heroes for the Planet” for his work as the founder of the Chicago Climate Exchange. In November 2004, Dr. Sandor was the recipient of an honorary degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) of Zurich, Switzerland for his pioneering work in the design and implementation of innovative and flexible market-based mechanisms to address environmental concerns. In May 2005, Dr. Sandor was named by “Treasury and Risk Management” magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance.” He is also the recipient of the 2008 Financial Management Association’s Outstanding Financial Executive Award, the Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 Award in the “green” category, and was honored by the Environmental Markets Association with its 2010 John H. Dales Memorial Leadership in Environmental Markets Award. Sandor has served on numerous committees and boards. He assisted the New York Mercantile Exchange on the design of the options contract for crude oil. In 1992 Sandor was an expert advisor to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on tradable entitlements for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. From 1991 to 1994, Sandor was Chairman of the CBOT Clean Air Committee. That committee developed the first spot and futures markets for sulfur dioxide emission allowances and supervised the annual allowance auctions conducted on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also served as Vice Chairman of the CBOT Insurance Committee and was the originator and co-author of the catastrophe and crop insurance futures and options contracts. Prior to the creation of the Chicago Climate Exchange, Sandor was a senior financial markets executive with Kidder Peabody, Banque Indosuez and Drexel Burnham Lambert. Sandor is currently a director of American Electric Power and The Volatility Exchange (VolX®), as well as a board member for Clean Energy Trust and an advisory board member for the Center for Financial Stability. Sandor received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College, and earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota in 1967. He is involved in numerous civic and charitable activities. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a major benefactor of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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