John F. (Jack) Sandner is a boxer, lawyer, trader and former CME chairman who served as a director of CME Group from July 2007 to February of 2018.
Sandner sat for an interview with John Lothian News for the MarketsWiki Education Open Outcry Traders History Project. The interview is broken into two parts to help tell the tale of a long and storied career in the Chicago futures markets.
His first encounter with CME members turned into a fist fight at a holiday party, but he would go on to become a member of the CME, a board member and chairman.
He tells the story of talking his way into law school at Notre Dame and how he had to give the order to liquidate the Hunt Brothers out of the cattle market while chairman and while he was himself in a limit long position.
Over the course of his career, he served as CME chairman for three separate terms. He was a member of the CME for more than 45 years. He currently serves on the boards of Virtu Financial and the National Futures Association.
Sandner stepped down from the CME Group board of directors at the end of his term in May 2018. Following his retirement, he served as a consultant for two years. He joined the board in 1978.