Prior to RBC Dain Rauscher, Mr. Gero was a Senior Vice President of Legg Mason Wood Walker, Inc. Before Legg Mason, Mr. Gero was a Senior Vice President of Investments, First Vice President of the Futures division and a President Council Member of Prudential Securities. Mr. Gero was a First Vice President of Prudential Securities Incorporated, for 22 years.

Mr. Gero has been a member of the NYMEX since 1966, where he has served on the Board of Directors for 30 years. He now Vice Chairs the Government Relations, Corporate Governance, and Finance Committees in addition to serving on the Membership and Metals Committees. He is also a member of FCM, Business Conduct, Petroleum Delivery, Compliance Review and Adjudication Committees, as well as many other sub committees. Formerly, he chaired the Finance, New Products and Presidential Search Committees, where he pioneered the Retention Plan and insurance for members. He guided the Clearing House Committee in revising the Clearing House Rules for which the Board of Directors adopted a special resolution of commendation. He now serves on the FCM Committee of the FIA.

Mr. Gero is also a member of all the CEC Commodity Exchanges and the AMEX and PHLX and PBOT, and serves on the COMEX Governors Committee, Finance, Admissions and Business Conduct and Nominating Committees for other CEC exchanges. In 1988 and 1991, he served as Chairman for the NYMEX Nominating Committee. Recently, he vice chaired NY BOT Nominating Committee. For over 10 years, he was an Allied Member of the New York Stock Exchange, and a member of the Hearing Board. He now serves on their Arbitration Panel. He also authored a text called Precious Metals. Mr. Gero is presently Chairman of the Commodity Floor Brokers and Traders Association, which includes members of all the CEC Exchanges. He has also served as a Director of the CEC and is the Secretary of the CEC Children’s Fund. He was elected to the Board of the FINEX and the NY Cotton Exchange in 1995. Commodity Clearing Corporation elected him Director in 1996. The IPMI, International Precious Metal Institute elected him Director recently.

Previously, he served as a member of the Joint Task Force, Steering Committee, Swap and OTC Derivative Product Committees of the Security Industry Association and the FCM Committee of the FIA. Mr. Gero was a Director of Research and Director of International Divisions of several New York Stock Exchange firms.

Mr. Gero graduated from the New York University School of Commerce. He received his Investment Banking Certificate from the Investment Bankers Association at the Wharton School in 1965, and is an Associate of the Institute of Financial Accounting of Great Britain. Formerly, he taught a commodity trading course at the New School. He is fluent in five languages and his former currency review was published in three of them.

See also: 08:45 am Roundtable I - Crisis Management and Disaster Recovery