By Nathaniel Luce
The Options Industry Council (OIC) today announced Robert Whaley as the recipient of the 2015 Joseph W. Sullivan Options Industry Achievement Award in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the U.S. options industry. The award will be presented at the 33rd Annual Options Industry Conference on May 7 in Miami Beach, Florida.
Highly regarded as a derivatives and financial markets expert, Robert Whaley is the Valere Blair Potter Professor of Management and Director of the Financial Markets Research Center at Vanderbilt University. Throughout his career, Professor Whaley has been an industry consultant for major investment houses, security exchanges, and governmental agencies, as well as prominent accounting and law firms. Whaley has also published seven books and numerous research papers in top academic and practitioner journals.
“As Director of the Financial Markets Research Center at Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Management, Bob has made significant contributions to the educational development of our industry and BOX is greatly honored to have him serve on our Exchange Board along with two other recipients of the Sullivan award: Wayne Luthringshausen and Paul Stevens,” said Tony McCormick, CEO of BOX Options Exchange. BOX is this year’s lead exchange for the Options Industry Conference.
Whaley’s award-winning research has made a great contribution to the understanding and growth of the options industry. His past work covered topics including the valuation of options and futures options contracts, efficiency of the options markets, expiration day effects of index options and futures, and the construction of stock and volatility indexes. In 1993, Whaley developed the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX Index) for the Chicago Board Options Exchange, followed by the CBOE NASDAQ-100 Volatility Index in 2000, and the CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index in 2001. His current research interests focus on market volatility and volatility products, market microstructure, high frequency trading and relative performance options.
“I am honored to join this distinguished group of Joseph W. Sullivan award winners and look forward to exploring future innovations that will continue to help refine and grow the global options industry,” said Whaley. Past Sullivan Award recipients are: Joseph Sullivan himself, Wayne Luthringshausen, Paul Stevens, Ivers Riley, Thomas Peterffy, Jeffrey Yass, David Krell, Bill Brodsky, Bill Porter, Larry McMillan, Ed Joyce, Meyer “Sandy” Frucher and Blair Hull.
About OIC The Options Industry Council (OIC) is an industry cooperative funded by the U.S. options exchanges and OCC. OIC’s mission is to provide free and unbiased education to investors and financial advisors about the benefits and risks of exchange-traded equity options. OIC delivers its education through the Options Education Program, a structured platform offering live seminars, self-directed online courses, mobile tools, podcasts, webinars and live help. OIC’s resources can be accessed online at OptionsEducation.org, via mobile app for iOS, or by phone at 1-888-OPTIONS.
Contact Person: Angela Kotso Media Contact
Contact Phone: (312) 322-6267
Contact Email: akotso@theocc.com
