Robert C. Liebenow

Become a sponsor »

Robert C. Liebenow The late Robert C. Liebenow (1923-2006) was the first non-member president of the Chicago Board of Trade. At the time he was hired as CBOT President he was a 33-year-old attorney working for the CBOT. He also served as president of the Corn Refiners Association from 1965 to 1990. He was labeled "aggressive" as president of the CBOT in a story by the New York Times. He was president of the CBOT during the Kennedy assassination and the great salad oil scandal. The CBOT would remain open during the salad oil scandal and was the only hedging market avail­able to the world trade in vege­table oils. For two days, on November 20 and 21, the CBOT would trade four to five times normal volume and would set an all time daily volume record. After the problems in edible oil, commodity exchanges created the Association of Commodity Exchange Firms, Inc. to study the impact of the scandal and recommend improvements to the system. Recommendations from the new organization included exploring insurance to cover liability against infidelity, fraud and forgery of any exchange license warehouse receipts. Also, exchange should finance a study to determine the need for uniform minimum standards and practices for commodity warehouse receipts. Additionally, common clearing of all exchanges in one central clearinghouse should be established. And lastly, all traders should post margin as performance bonds on commodity exchanges. Background Liebenow worked in banking before being named secretary of the CBOT in 1952. In 1956 he was selected to be the first paid, non-member of the exchange. The highest ranking member of the CBOT would then be the chairman of the board. In 1965 Liebenow joined the Corn Refiners Association, which was originally the Corn Industries Research Foundation. In 1956, Liebenow was honored as one of the top outstanding young men by the United States Junior Chamber. Education References

JLN News Feed Index Fund Giants Draw Antitrust Scrutiny in U.S. Merger Reviews; Free Trade Is Dead. Long Live Managed Trade Lee Tenzer – Open Outcry Traders History Project Xavier Rolet Options Markets Brace for Election Volatility; Super Tuesday Hedging Shows Up in Volatility Curves Sponsor News Airbus’ Skytra selects Nasdaq to provide the technology for its new venue for air travel price derivatives Nasdaq Announces ESG Reporting Technology Solution Nasdaq Recognized as a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality” for the Second Consecutive Year CME Group Achieves Record International Average Daily Volume of 4.8 Million Contracts in 2019, Up 10 Percent from 2018 Nasdaq European Debt Market Continues to Expand in 2019 We visit more than 100 websites daily for financial news (Would YOU do that?). Read the John Lothian Newsletter. FREE 90 day trial