Vincent Viola has been one of the leading figures in the New York commodity futures community for many years and an important force for innovation in electronic trading and clearing. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the New York Law School, he began his financial career as a local on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange. He became a member of the exchange in 1982 and served as a director from 1987 to 1990, vice chairman from 1993 to 1996, and chairman from 2001 to 2004. When Nymex was nearly destroyed by the September 2001 terrorist attacks, his leadership and hands-on involvement in getting Nymex reopened were critical in the exchange’s remarkably rapid recovery from this unprecedented disaster. It was also under his leadership that Nymex created the Clearport facility for clearing energy derivatives traded in the over-the-counter markets. Clearport proved to be immensely beneficial not only for the exchange but also for the wider energy market, and it is now a model for clearing a much wider range of OTC products. Viola also established several companies during his career, including Pioneer Futures, a New York-based clearing firm, and International Derivatives Clearing Group, a trading and clearing platform for interest rate swaps.
