About Us
DONALD L. HORWITZ
Managing Director | Oyster Consulting, LLC
Biography
Donald L. Horwitz joined Oyster Consulting in November 2011, shortly after launching a new consulting practice, Donald Horwitz Consulting, in Chicago. Working from the Oyster Consulting Chicago office, Don brings to the firm nearly 40 years of expertise in senior regulatory, compliance and legal counsel roles in the financial services industry, with a particular focus on commodity and financial futures, options and other derivatives.
He has served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for some of the world’s most recognized financial institutions. During his career, he has leveraged his expertise and analytical skills to formulate the operating policies and surveillance measures to ensure appropriate control over global organizations. Don has written extensively about issues affecting futures and securities regulation, served as an expert witness and arbitrator in several matters, and chaired or presented at a wide range of industry and professional panels. He also served as a Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) Trustee in the bankruptcy of a broker-dealer. In 2011, he was named a Contributing Editor to MarketsReformWiki, a website established to serve as a clearinghouse for information about financial services regulatory reform. Beginning in 2012, he will become an adjunct professor of Futures and Derivatives Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he recently joined the school’s Compliance Advisory Board.
Don has been actively involved in policy making for the industry through appointments as President of the Futures Industry Association (FIA) Law and Compliance Division, Chairman of the Chicago Bar Association Derivatives Regulation Committee, Editor and Board member of the Futures and Derivatives Law Report, Chairman of the National Futures Association (NFA) FCM Advisory Committee, member of the Derivatives Regulation Committee of the Association of Bar of the City of New York, member of the Derivatives and Futures Law Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association, and member of the Compliance Advisory Board at Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Launching his financial services career in 1974 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York regional office, Don later joined the legal department of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., where he was appointed General Counsel of the firm’s futures subsidiary. Later he practiced law as Senior Counsel with Kay Scholer, LLP in New York. In 1988, The Options Clearing Corporation appointed Don General Counsel. Nine years later, he was named to the same post at Sakura Dellsher, a Tokyo-based FCM. He later served as Head of Compliance for BrokerTec Futures Exchange and then of Eurex US, as a result of a merger. He served as Director/General Counsel for Global Futures at ABN AMRO Incorporated, and then as Executive Director and Senior Attorney at UBS AG after the Swiss banking firm purchased ABN AMRO’s global futures business in 2006. The following year, Don joined OneChicago, LLC, the first U.S. single stock futures exchange, as Managing Director, General Counsel and Chief Regulatory Officer.
A member of the Illinois, Michigan and New York state bars and a graduate of the University of Michigan, Don earned his Juris Doctor degree from Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.