“Marketing Financial Technology to Investors”

Tom Sosnoff is a recognized online brokerage innovator and sought-after financial educator. Tom is a true visionary and serial entrepreneur who co-founded thinkorswim in 1999, tastytrade in 2011 and newly launched tastyworks in 2017. Leveraging over 20 years of experience as a market maker for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and one of the original OEX traders in the S&P 100 Index pit, Tom pursued a vision to educate retail investors in options trading and to build a superior software platform and a brokerage firm that specialized in options. His efforts ultimately changed the way these instruments traded by pioneering everything from single click complex trading functionality to multi-product access from a single platform. Currently, Tom is the co-host of tastytrade Live and continues to drive innovation and know-how to the do-ityourself investor. Tom has been named to Techweek’s Tech 100 list, Crain’s Chicago’s Tech 50, and has spoken at Chicago Ideas Week, Techweek Chicago, TD Ameritrade’s Market Drive events, Money Show, University of Chicago TEDx and the “He Said She Said” Tour for tastytrade. Tom received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2014 and has been featured by prominent publications such as Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago, Traders Mag and Barron’s.

Mark Haraburda is a financial market data and trading technology executive. Mark has worked in the financial markets and trading industry for over 20 years, starting with Dean Witter while in college. Mark has an undergraduate degree in Finance from Bradley University and a Master of Financial Markets from Illinois Institute of Technology. In 2018, Mark was awarded Outstanding Young Alumnus by Illinois Institute of Technology. Mark began his professional career as a commercial banking analyst with the American National Bank / First Chicago division of Bank One. Mark then spent 7 years with the Chicago Board of Trade, first as a market data auditor, then as a Director in Market Data Services and Business Development. Mark then worked in business development focused on the newly established CBOE Futures Exchange, part of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. Mark joined Barchart in 2007 as Managing Director of Sales and Business Development, focusing on expanding Barchart’s client and product footprint within the financial services, commodity and media industries. Most notably Mark has led the growth of Barchart’s institutional market data and software business, several acquisitions, deep expansion into new markets including media, FinTech and AgTech, as well as the overall growth of the company. Mark has also been the driving force behind FinTech Exchange, a Chicago event (established in 2015) focused on FinTech for financial markets and trading. FinTech Exchange has become one of the leading events for financial technology and financial markets and trading. Mark was named CEO of Barchart in 2016. Mark is actively involved in his community, including leadership positions in the Boy Scouts of America, local School Board, local Economic Development Commission and numerous youth sports coaching positions. Mark resides in Clarendon Hills, Illinois with his wife, two sons and dog.

Joe is a pioneer in the emergence and growth of quantitative trading systems. Prior to launching Social Market Analytics (SMA), he co-founded Quantitative Analytics, Inc. (QA Direct), a market-leading provider of integrated database solutions for quantitative researchers and traders. Joe integrated QAI’s technology into Thomson Financial (now Thomson Reuters), after its 2007 acquisition. He oversaw the development and maintenance of the content, analytics and APIs that drove historical analytics. Joe co-founded SMA in 2012 to harness unstructured social media data into a predictive quantitative feed. Joe earned his MBA from DePaul University and his BA from the University of Iowa. He is a CFA Charterholder.

Kevin Comer is the Executive Director and Global Head of Marketing at CME Group. He is responsible for long-term planning, execution and measurement of global customer-focused marketing campaigns across CME Group’s products, services and technologies. Previously, Comer most recently served as Executive Director of Product and Customer Marketing at CME Group. Prior to that, he has held multiple roles of increasing responsibility in CME Group product and customer marketing since 2006. Before joining CME Group, he was a Senior Account Executive at Magnani Continuum Marketing. Comer holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and business logistics from John Carroll University. He holds an MBA in marketing management from DePaul University’s Charles H. Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.