Prior to joining ABN AMRO Incorporated, Ronalds served as a marketing executive of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In his 12-year career with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, he was Managing Director of the joint Chicago Mercantile Exchange/Chicago Board of Trade representative office in Tokyo, the only joint office of the world’s two largest futures and options exchanges. In that role he marketed the products and services of both exchanges extensively throughout Asian countries, advising clients on the use of listed derivatives to manage portfolio risk. In 1989 he first visited China with other senior executives of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to provide guidance on how to establish futures markets in China.

Before his seven-year assignment in Tokyo, Nick was Operations Manager for the CME Clearing House and also served as senior research analyst in the CME Research Division.

Nick writes regularly for China Futures Daily, has been a columnist for Nihon Shoken Shimbun, a Japanese financial daily, while residing in Japan, and has authored articles for the Wall Street Journalon general business topics and on futures and options for Futures Industry, Futures Magazine, and Journal of Global Financial Markets. Recently he wrote a preface to the Chinese translation of The Economics of Futures Markets, by Thomas Hieronymus, (translated by Wang Xue Qing) published in spring 2004, and he co-authored an article with Wang on China’s Futures Markets in the May/June 2005 issue of Futures Industry. He was President of the CFA Society of Chicago from 2004 to 2005 and has been an adjunct Professor of Finance at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s School of Law and Financial Markets. Nick is a CFA charterholder and a Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM).

See also: 02:15 pm 'China - and its influence on Asian development'