Associates and Instructors
Kevin Baldwin began his career in the futures and options industry in 1989 within the largest non-bank FCM's training department. He taught their six-week futures and options course in Chicago for six years. In addition to the six-week Chicago program, he provided shorter term derivatives seminars for client institutions in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Seoul, London, Mumbai, and Moscow on behalf of the British government's Know How fund. Baldwin was adjunct faculty at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies where he taught Intermediate Securities Analysis and their Futures & Options courses. Baldwin was also a lecturer for the Illinois Institute of Technology's Master's Program in Financial Markets.
In 1996, Kevin Baldwin joined an innovative Introducing Broker in New York City as managing director and had held various securities and futures registrations including Series 3, 4, 7, 24, 30 and 63. In addition to his professional responsibilities, Baldwin became an adjunct faculty member for New York University's School of Continuing Education where he taught both Intermediate Securities Analysis and Futures and Options courses. In 2000, he returned to Chicago and developed a portfolio of websites aimed at different segments of the futures and options community.
In 2006, Kevin Baldwin became the director of education for the IFM, Since joining the nonprofit foundation, he has broadened the IFM's curriculum and developed new in-house programs for firms, exchanges and their clients. In spring 2010, Baldwin began teaching MBA program course at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Business on behalf of the IFM. He is responsible for developing educational content and programs for live and Web-mediums, managing the instructional staff, and also serves as an instructor for open-enrollment and customized courses. In his role at the IFM, he also has taught FIN516 - Futures & Options, as well as FIN 594 -Special Topics in Finance: Futures. Baldwin earned a Bachelor of Science degree from San Jose State University in California, and an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.
Stanley Dash began his career on Wall Street in 1975 with the futures division of a major
national brokerage, providing research and brokerage services to individual and institutional futures
clients. Later he served in operations, brokerage and compliance management roles. Dash also spent
time as an active floor trader at one of the leading domestic futures exchanges. He has held various
securities and futures registrations, including commodity trading advisor, as well as exchange and
National Futures Association membership. Dash combines over a quarter-century of experience in
the financial industry with more than a decade of work as a teacher and public speaker. He was on the
IFM team that developed the joint NASD (now FINRA) and NFA security futures training program. In addition to his
affiliation with the Institute for Financial Markets, Dash has been a member of the faculty of the
New York Institute of Finance since 1987, developing and delivering courses related to the futures
industry and futures trading. Dash is employed full-time with TradeStation Securities where he
creates and delivers training courses for TradeStation users, and supports the company's business
development efforts.
Dr. Paul Dawson is a member of the faculty at the Department of Finance and Financial
Engineering at Kent State University College of Business Administration and Graduate School
of Management. He joined KSU in August 2005, and also remains active in training practitioners
from around the world in the valuation and application of financial derivatives.
After graduating with a Bachelors degree in Business Studies, Dawson spent several years
in advertising working on accounts such as, "That's the Wonder of Woolworth", "Come and talk to
the Listening Bank", and "Milk's Gotta Lotta Bottle". A chance comment over a card table led to
an interest in traded options, and that combined with the management of takeover advertising
campaigns during the 1980s, motivated him to learn more about finance. He earned a MBA in 1988 at
the Cass Business School in London. He spent a brief time working as a stockbroker with the Swiss Bank
Corporation, and then combined his role as the Marketing Manager of Granville, a private investment
banking group, with research for his Ph.D. thesis on traded options. In 1996, Dawson left the commercial
world and spent almost 10 years as a Senior Lecturer in financial derivatives at the Cass Business School,
one of Europe’s leading providers of business and management education, research and consultancy.
Philip Gocke As managing director for the Options Industry Council (OIC),
Gocke is responsible for developing and implementing a research and educational strategy
for institutional investors. The OIC is a nonprofit industry association, sponsored by
the six U.S. options exchanges and the Options Clearing Corporation, that is dedicated
to educating the investing public, brokers, pension funds, hedge funds and money management
firms, about the benefits and risks of exchange-traded options. Gocke also is the
founder and president of the options trading firm, Brite Sky LLC, which uses proprietary
mathematical and technical models for electronic execution on broad and narrow equity option indices.
Previously, Gocke was a Managing Director and CEO of Van Der Moolen Options U.S.A. LLC.
In this position Gocke was responsible to the Dutch parent, Van der Moolen N.V.,
for all trading, marketing, compliance and financial disclosure for the options specialist
& market making activities on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Chicago Board Options
Exchange, International Securities Exchange and Eurex/Deutsche Borse in Frankfurt, Germany.
Prior to those responsibilities Gocke was a managing director of Tague Van Der Moolen
LLC (TVDM), and held a similar position for 15 years with Tague Securities Corporation/BancAmerica
Options, Inc. until TSC was acquired by TVDM in April 1999.
Gocke has been approved as a registered options principal, a foreign currency
options representative and a commodity futures representative. He served or chaired a number
of Philadelphia Stock Exchange and ISE management committees. In addition, he has developed
a workshop on options and has given numerous lectures at educational institutions and
professional organizations around the world. Before moving to Philadelphia, Gocke was
a vice president and chief advisor for Bank of America’s Financial Market Advisory Group
and a senior foreign exchange trader for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Gocke
received an MBA degree from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Lafayette College.
Dr. Ira Kawaller is the president of Kawaller & Co., LLC, a financial
consulting company based in Brooklyn, NY, specializing in assisting commercial enterprises in their
use of derivative instruments in managing their financial risk. In addition to his responsibilities
with Kawaller & Company, Kawaller is also the managing partner of the Kawaller Fund, LP.
He is currently a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's Derivatives
Implementation Group (DIG), and much of his work in recent years has related to aspects
of FAS 133 - the U.S. accounting standard that pertains to derivative instruments. In prior
years he was a trustee of both the Futures Industry Institute and the Securities Industry
Institute and a member of the board of directors of the International Association of Financial
Engineers. In addition, he has held positions with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, J. Aron &
Company, AT&T, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Kawaller has held adjunct professorships at Columbia University and Polytechnic University. He
received a Ph.D. in Economics, from Purdue University.
Neil J. McKenzie has been involved in financial markets technology and trading for almost 20 years in the U.K, U.S. and Gibraltar. Since 2006, he has been a trader with Dragon Worldwide Holdings Ltd., in Gibraltar. Prior moving to Gibraltar, he spent five years as an options market maker for Denali Trading in Chicago. McKenzie moved to the U.S. to be the managing director for RTS Realtime Systems, where he was responsible for providing technology for trading and risk management on 35 global exchanges, and coordinated the implementation of the firm's first US-based exchanges.
Prior joining RTS, McKenzie served as the electronic trading manager for ABN AMRO (MeesPierson) where he implemented and managed the firm's move into screen-based trading, and grew the trading arcade from 3 to 100 traders on four exchanges. During his tenure, he also was responsible for managing relations between traders, risk, back office, software vendors and exchanges. His responsibilities also included serving as risk officer where he was responsible for the management of a portfolio of stocks, futures, and options clients, including stock and index market makers, arbitrage firms and locals. McKenzie's industry experience also includes positions with the Bank of England in their Wholesale Markets Supervision Division and Markets, and Systems Division of the Derivatives Market Group.
McKenzie has been an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from the University of Bristol, and a Masters of Arts degree in Economics from St. Andrews University, Scotland.
Polly J. Richter began her career as a runner on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Subsequently, she became Assistant Vice President running a managed futures execution desk for Paine Webber (now UBS Financial Services Inc.). Richter later became a member of the CME with an Index and Option Market (IOM) seat where she traded Deutsche Marks as a "local" for her own account. She also worked in the equity markets for American Express Financial Advisors and Morgan Stanley. Richter has an MBA in finance from De Paul University in Chicago and also earned her Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
John Sanaghan is an ethics and professional conduct training expert whose diverse
background provides a range of practical and academic experience in the exploration
of ethics, professional conduct and education, not found in programs provided by commercial
vendors. Before joining the Institute, Sanaghan worked as a floor trader on the
MidAmerica Exchange of the Chicago Board of Trade, and served as the executive director
of the Calvert Center at the University of Chicago, where his responsibilities included
the conduct of seminars on business and professional ethics. He also spent over 10 years
teaching and studying ethics education at Northwestern and Yale and previously served
many years as a Catholic Priest.
Sanaghan served full-time as the IFM’s Director of Ethics and Professional
Conduct Training from 1991 to 2006, prior to returning to the priesthood and
the Integritas Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at the John Paul II
Newman Center at the University of Illinois - Chicago. He continues to serve as
an IFM Associate on a part-time basis and provides specialized professional conduct,
ethics and regulatory training content for IFM clients such as New York Stock Exchange
and global financial services firms, as well as authors IFM multi-media and computer-based
ethics and AML training programs.
Charlotte M. Scott is a broadly accomplished financial services professional with 20 years of
comprehensive experience in Operations and Technology, supporting Global Capital Markets and Investment
Banking business lines. Her successful career as a senior-level manager at Credit Suisse, Drexel
Burnham Lambert, Paine Webber and Bankers Trust provides the industry expertise and background that
has made her a recognized subject matter expert for Operations in financial services firms.
Scott has since built a flourishing management consulting practice that supplies major Wall Street
firms with advisory services in the disciplines of business development and analysis, and strategic
process re-engineering, with a focus on Middle and Back Office processing. She has directed business
projects as a client manager for equities and fixed income cash and derivatives trade support and
operations. Her experience in securities services includes process improvement and cost analysis
for both prime brokers and custodian banks. She also has overseen software development and
implementation projects for her clients, and offers service provider identification, assessment,
selection and customization.
With extensive experience as a financial writer, lecturer and instructor, Scott has conducted hundreds
of training seminars for banks, brokerage firms, depositories, federal and state agencies, investment
management companies, and other organizations. Scott is a graduate of the College of the Holy
Cross, and holds a Masters degree from Rutgers University.
Alan Seifert served as deputy director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the U.S. regulatory agency, from 1984 to 2002. He was
responsible for the Commission's regulatory programs for oversight of markets and the
participation of firms. Prior to be named deputy director, he served in a senior capacity
in the CFTC's Division of Enforcement and worked in a law firm. Seifert is a recipient
of the U.S. Presidential Meritorious Executive Award. Winners of this prestigious award are
strong leaders, professionals, and scientists who achieve results and consistently demonstrate
strength, integrity, industry, and a relentless commitment to excellence in public service.
Award recipients are nominated by their agency heads, evaluated by boards of private citizens,
and approved by the U.S. President.
Since leaving the CFTC, Seifert has served as a consultant regarding exchange-traded and
over the counter (OTC) derivatives for a variety of global organizations including the
Institute and also serves as an expert witness and advisor in litigation. He is a
member of the Executive Committee of the Law and Compliance Division of the Futures
Industry Association, an affiliate of the IFM; and is a member of the Probable Cause
Committee of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Seifert graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where
he was on the Editorial Board of the Law Review. He received his undergraduate
degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Dr. Paula Tosini is the past executive vice president
and director of the IFM and continues her close relationship with the
IFM as an associate developing futures and securities training materials
and professional conduct and ethics training programs.
Prior to joining the Institute in 1989, she was chief economist and director
of the Division of Economic Analysis at the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission,
where she received three Special Act of Service Awards and a Presidential Rank Award,
Senior Executive in the U.S. government service. Previous positions include
foreign service officer with the U. S. Department of State, official of the
U.S. Agency for International Development, and lecturer in finance and assistant
professor in economics at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Tosini holds a B.S., summa cum laude, and an M.S. from the
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, a certificate in economics
with honors from the University of Brussels under a Fulbright scholarship,
and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland. She was awarded a
dissertation research fellowship by the Brookings Institution and has published
extensively in economics and finance including Commodities Law Letter,
Journal of Futures Markets, Financial Analysts Journal and the Princeton
Essay in International Finance.
Mayra Rodriguez Valladares began her career with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as a foreign exchange
analyst. Subsequently, she was a junior investment banker and later an emerging markets fixed income and equity
strategist with JP Morgan in New York and London. In 1997, she joined BTAlex.Brown as a Senior Russian Equity
Analyst, where she analyzed Russian oil and electricity companies, along with macro political and economic events in that country.
Mayra Rodríguez Valladares heads her consulting practice, MRV Associates. Her financial consulting and training
covers financial and energy derivative instruments, Basel II, and risk management. She has worked with private
sector and foreign central banks in the US, UK, Eastern Europe, Central and Southeast Asia, and Africa, creating and
delivering courses on risk management, risk based supervision, capital markets, derivatives,
microfinance, anti-corruption, and good governance.
Rodriguez Valladares has published numerous articles and a book for publications such as GARP, World Oil,
Financial Times Energy, Petroleum Argus, Oxford Economics Forecasting Group, Privatisation International, Russian
Petroleum Investor, Hispanic Business and Knowledge@Wharton. She is the South American energy columnist for World
Oil. In addition, she has been an Adjunct Professor at New York University where she has taught courses on
globalization and energy. She was also an Adjunct Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology where she taught
global marketing, corporate finance and Latin American politics.
Rodriguez Valladares earned her with Bachelor's degree from Harvard in Russian and Soviet Studies. She earned her
MBA in Emerging Markets Business at The Wharton School, and her MA in International Studies from University
of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Mehmet Yanilmaz is an associate instructor with the IFM where he develops and teaches courses on algorithmic trading
to audiences from hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, banks and exchanges worldwide. Yanilmaz
also is managing partner at a proprietary trading firm based in Chicago, where he is responsible for the
firm's trading strategies, portfolio of algorithms, information technology infrastructure and trading performance.
Prior to his current work, Yanilmaz delivered business, engineering, IT and manufacturing solutions to a wide
spectrum of clients with very diverse business cultures, and ranging from Fortune 100 to those with revenues
less than $50 million. Since 2003, he has devised unique intellectual property in finance and trading systems
by leveraging the algorithms that he has custom designed to solve numerous engineering problems over the last
25 years, and by integrating them with new mathematical constructs to deliver high performance solutions for
the finance sector. The focus of these solutions is dynamic portfolio optimization, with an emphasis on electronic
trading, algorithmic trading, as well as over the counter trading strategies for fixed income derivatives,
compactions, swaps and collateralized obligations.
Since 1990, Yanilmaz's clients have included Baxter Healthcare, Motorola, Intel, AT&T, International Truck & Engine
(Navistar), Caterpillar, Ford Motor Company, Klein Tools, General Electric, Encore Computer, Kodak and Xerox,
among others. Yanilmaz worked for Unilever France, RIT Research Corporation and Chipware Tools. His solutions
have been implemented in diverse geographies, including the USA and Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil, Israel,
The United Kingdom, Japan, China, Singapore, Germany, France and Turkey.
Yanilmaz has served as faculty for engineering, computer science and management courses at
Northwestern University. He taught computer science at the University of Chicago, and financial
engineering at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey. He delivered professional training at
IBM, General Electric, Singer, U.S. Air Force, and at numerous other organizations. Yanilmaz
received his B.S in Electrical Engineering from Bogazici University, and M.S. in Computer Engineering
and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University.
