During his career, James Oliff has been a trader, exchange leader and technology executive. He was a long-time member of the board of CME Group and a leader of its predecessor boards – from 1984 to 2017 – overseeing multiple key transactions and company milestones.
As Chairman of the exchange’s Strategic Planning Committee, Oliff played a leading role in CME’s journey from a member-owned organization to a demutualized exchange, and the nation’s first publicly traded marketplace. Oliff helped to guide the exchange’s brokers and traders through the critical transition from open outcry to electronic trading as chairman of the Electronic Transition Committee, spearheading the creation and build-out of the Globex Learning Center. He also chaired the CME Clearing House Risk Committee, introducing the clearing of interest rate and credit default swaps, and chaired CME’s Professional Responsibilities Committee, leading a program that became a model for exchanges nationwide.
In 2018, Oliff was appointed to the board of Intercontinental Exchange’s Precious Metals Oversight Committee. He was also a member of Rice Dairy’s advisory board from 2017 to 2020. In 2002, he became deputy chairman of derivatives software company FFastFill and from 2017 until 2019 was a founder and non-executive director of risk management technology company KRM22.
