Terry Duffy

Duffy was born and raised in the working-class Mount Greenwood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, where most adults were teachers, firefighters, police officers and nurses, and he expected to become a police officer or firefighter himself. He graduated from Leo High School in 1976, attended what is now Richard J. Daley College and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and worked as a bartender at Chuck’s in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, while in school.⁠[1][2][3][2][2]

A vacationing Chicago futures trader noticed his memory and calm amid the bar’s chaos and asked whether he had considered the business; he went to work on the trading floor for a summer and never left.⁠[2][2][1][1]

In 1980 Duffy started out in the hog futures pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME); in 1981 he became a CME member and founded his own firm, TDA Trading, which he led as president until 2002. His membership was financed by a mortgage his parents took out on their home, though accounts of the details differ: one says that at 21 he needed $50,000 to lease a seat, another that he bought a seat in 1984 with the help of his parents’ mortgage.⁠[4][5][4][1][2][4]

Early in his career he misheard an order and sold 100 contracts he was supposed to buy, incurring a large loss variously put at $100,000 and $150,000 and putting his parents’ house at risk. His mentor, Vince Schreiber, backed him with his own reputation, and Duffy traded by day and worked other jobs to repay the debt over three years, an episode he has often described as a lesson in discipline and the value of reputation.⁠[3][6][2][6][6][6][6][1][1]

Duffy joined the CME board in 1995 and served as vice chairman of CME from 1998 to April 2002; after Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings was formed in August 2001, he was vice chairman of the holding company.⁠[5][5]

In April 2002 Duffy became chairman of CME and CME Holdings. CME had promised members a liquidity event when it demutualized in 2000, but momentum had stalled; he told fellow directors he was willing to lead an initial public offering. That December CME went public, becoming the first publicly traded exchange in the United States.⁠[5][3][3][1][3]

In 2003 Duffy was appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a member of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, serving until 2013; the board administers the Thrift Savings Plan for federal employees.⁠[5][5]

Duffy became executive chairman in October 2006. On October 17, 2006, CME and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) announced a definitive merger agreement creating a company valued at $25 billion at the previous day’s closing prices, to be named CME Group, with Duffy as chairman and CBOT Chairman Charles P. Carey as vice chairman. The merger closed on July 12, 2007.⁠[5][7][7][7][7][8]

On August 22, 2008, CME Group completed its acquisition of NYMEX Holdings, parent of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Executive Chairman Duffy called it another milestone for CME Group and NYMEX and said the combined company would continue operating the largest and most diverse derivatives exchange in the world.⁠[8][9][9][9]

In late October 2011 the futures broker MF Global defaulted and collapsed. Duffy later recalled helping staff at the CME clearing house unwind trades, answering phones and responding to clients; afterward he spent months in the middle of the country, attending state fairs to rebuild the confidence of farmers and ranchers in futures markets.⁠[3][1][1][1][3][3]

In May 2012 Duffy became executive chairman and president of CME Group, and from November 2016 he served as chairman and chief executive officer.⁠[5][10]

On November 2, 2018, CME Group completed its acquisition of London-based NEX Group; Duffy said the combination would give clients efficient access to futures, cash and OTC markets as well as post-trade services and data. That year he was named CEO of the Year at the FOW International Awards.⁠[11][11][11][5]

On November 4, 2021, CME Group and Google Cloud announced a ten-year strategic partnership to move CME Group’s technology infrastructure to the cloud, along with a $1 billion equity investment by Google in CME Group. Duffy said the partnership would use technology to transform derivatives markets, expanding access and creating efficiencies.⁠[12][12][12]

On May 12, 2022, Duffy testified at a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, criticizing the direct clearing model for crypto derivatives proposed by the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and arguing that FTX had set aside insufficient financial resources to back it; his arguments raised eyebrows in the industry and revived the debate over clearing houses’ “skin in the game.”⁠[13][13][13][3]

After FTX collapsed that November, Duffy said on Fox News that he had warned in congressional testimony that Sam Bankman-FriedSam Bankman-FriedSam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the crypto hedge fund Alameda Research. After FTX collapsed in November 2022, he was charged in the United States with misappropriating customer funds; in November 2023 a jury found him guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy, in March 2024 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit about $11 billion, and in 2026 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected his appeal.Open the full entry could lose 85% of his value in a single day and that he had known Bankman-Fried was a fraud the day he met him; he also argued that Bankman-Fried’s ambitions went beyond crypto to extending the same model to the U.S. Treasury and agricultural markets.⁠[14][14][14]

In 2025 Duffy led CME Group’s partnership with FanDuel, bringing CME Group benchmark products to millions of potential U.S. retail traders. At the same time he has criticized prediction markets: he has said they blur the line between investing and gambling, and at an August 2026 meeting of the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee he likened them to “carnival barkers at a circus,” arguing that event contracts are easily manipulated by people with insider information, that some lack economic utility, and that the CFTC does not meaningfully review contracts before they go live. The nonprofit Better Markets then issued a statement backing his views while noting that others could argue he has a conflict of interest.⁠[6][15][15][15][15][15][15]

On June 17, 2026, CME Group announced that Duffy would become executive chairman and that President and CFO Lynne C. Fitzpatrick would succeed him as CEO, effective on the later of March 1, 2027, and the filing of the company’s 2026 annual report. Under his transition agreement, Duffy will serve as executive chairman through December 31, 2027, with duties including facilitating a successful CEO transition and maintaining leadership continuity.⁠[16][16][16][16][16]

In July 2026, after CME self-certified a 10-barrel crude oil futures contract that would trade around the clock, the CFTC stayed its listing. On October 2, CME Group announced it was withdrawing the filing. Duffy said the contract had been meant as a regulated, transparent alternative to energy products already trading 24/7, mainly for retail participants, on onshore prediction markets and offshore perpetuals; but after extensive conversations with the industry, the company had determined that key constituents were concerned that introducing 24/7 energy trading without further due diligence could create unintended consequences and add risk to the marketplace. He also said he hoped the CFTC would address the inequity and restore a level playing field.⁠[17][17][18][18][18][18][18]

Duffy received an honorary Doctor of Public Service from Saint Xavier University in 2019 and a Doctor of Humane Letters from DePaul University in 2007, and has been named one of TabbFORUM’s 40 Innovators in Financial Markets, included in Crain’s Who’s Who in Chicago Business and inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame. He is co-chair of the Mayo Clinic Greater Chicago Leadership Council and a board member of the CME Group Foundation.⁠[5][5][6][5][5]

CME Group: Official website: https://www.cmegroup.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]