AQUA-INDEX

Our Team

Mr. Yaacov Shirazi, the founder of Aqua-Index, recognized the need and potential for a method of integrating the public trade of water into a global market, along with wheat, corn, coffee, sugar, and other commodities.

He has spent the past few years developing and perfecting such a method, which is now duly protected and patented. Making an investment in water has now become possible, using traditional financial instruments such as certificates, bonds, futures, etc.

Yaacov Shirazi

FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO

  • Developer and founder of Aqua-Index and of the intellectual property for trading water as a commodity
  • Extended experience in financing and trading commodities, in both the agricultural and energy sectors
  • Several years of involvement in high tech projects

Yomtob Sabah

VICE CHAIRMAN

  • Member of a banking family with over 40 years of business and banking experience
  • Former financial analyst at Banque de Paris & des Pays-Bas – Head Office, Paris
  • Former researcher at the M&A
  • Department of Lehman Brothers – New York
  • Former member of the Board of Directors of Mizrahi Tefahot Bank in Israel
  • International business entrepreneur engaged in financial syndications on three continents

Robert Gaffney

AQUA-INDEX EXCHANGE CEO

  • Accomplished senior executive officer, with deep roots in all areas of the financial derivatives and prime brokerage industries
  • Founder of Canterbury Business Solutions, where he has been providing consulting services and technology enabled solutions to the financial services industry
  • Played a pivotal role in directing the global acquisition and integration of ABN’s operational and technology platform, as COO and Managing Director of UBS Securities, LLC, Prime Brokerage Services Division, and the integration of UBS’s Listed Derivatives business onto that operational and technology platform
  • COO of global operations of ABN AMRO Global Futures, with broad responsibilities across all operating areas of that company
  • From 1984 through 1996, he was Senior Vice President at Citicorp Futures
  • B.A. in Financial Management from Hunter College in New York

Ronald Filler

EXCHANGE PUBLIC DIRECTOR

  • Professor of Law and Director of the Financial Services Law Institute at the New York Law School
  • Public Director of the NFA
  • Former Managing Director and Director of Institutional Futures Administration
  • Former Director, Capital Markets Prime Services Division of Lehman Brothers Inc.
  • Former Partner and Senior Futures Lawyer at Vedder Price Kaufman & Kammholz in Chicago
  • Former Managing Partner, Filler Weiner Zaner & Associates, a Futures Commission Merchant and Commodity Pool Operator in Chicago
  • Former Director of Managed Futures and Associate Counsel, at ContiCommodity Services Inc., a Futures Commission Merchant in Chicago
  • Former Lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.

Don Horwitz

AQUA-INDEX EXCHANGE CRO

  • Financial senior executive with extensive legal, regulatory business and management experience
  • Managing Director at Oyster Consulting, LLC, a firm supporting financial services businesses with audit, regulatory, compliance, financial, strategic management, operations trading and technology services
  • General Counsel, CRO and Secretary of the North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc.
  • General Counsel Managing Director, CCO and Secretary of Intellectual Property Exchange International
  • Managing Director, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of OneChicago, LLC
  • Executive Director and Senior Attorney- Exchange Traded Derivatives at UBS, AG
  • General Counsel of ABN AMRO Global Futures
  • Head of Compliance at BrokerTec Futures Exchange and Clearing Company/Eurex U.S.
  • General Counsel and Head of Compliance at Sakura Dellsher, Inc.
  • B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Wayne State University Law School
  • Adjunct professor in financial services law

Linda Allen

AQUA-INDEX SPECIAL ADVISER AND RISK CONSULTANT

  • William F. Aldinger Chair in Banking and Finance at Baruch College, City University of New York
  • Research areas: Risk measurement and management focusing on systemic risk, credit risk and operational risk; the evolution of financial markets and bank regulation; the organization of financial institutions
  • Author of: Credit Risk Measurement In and Out of Crisis: New Approaches to Value at Risk and Other Paradigms (with Anthony Saunders – Wiley, 2010); Capital Markets and Institutions: A Global View (Wiley, 1997); Understanding Market, Credit and Operational Risk (Blackwell, 2004)
  • Co-Editor of the Journal of Credit Risk

Paul Peterson

ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS CONSULTANT

  • Professor at the University Of Illinois School Of Business
  • Director of Commodity Research & Product Development at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for 23 years
  • Research and Market analysis at the Chicago Board of Trade
  • Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics, an M.S. and a B.S. (with honors), all from the University of Illinois

Gerald L. Fishman

INTERNATIONAL AND LEGAL REGULATORY OFFICER

  • Former Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Rosenthal Collins Group, a Chicago based international futures and derivatives brokerage and trading firm
  • Former principal at his own law firm for 21 years where he concentrated in all facets of financial services, including acquisitions and divestitures and regulatory and compliance activities
  • As well as his law degree (J.D.), received from the Northwestern University School of Law, Mr. Fishman holds an undergraduate degree (B.S.) in Investment Management/Business Finance from the Northwestern University School of Business (now Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management)

Sanjeev Dutta

SENIOR ADVISOR, MENA AND AIPAC

  • Strategic business leader with 30+ years’ experience in commodities, financial services and bi-lateral trade
  • Expert in Risk Management & Corporate Governance with a proven track record of driving sustainable business strategies
  • Former CEO of the UAE-India Business Council (UIBC), a key entity fostering economic partnership between the UAE and India
  • Former Executive Director at the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) for Commodities & Financial Services
  • Former board member of the Dubai Diamond Exchange, Dubai Design Academy, Gundlach Packaging and the World Diamond Council
  • Significant multi-industry audit & consulting experience across KPMG and PwC in Bahrain, Oman and India
  • Bachelor of Commerce from Calcutta University and Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

James Bernard

SENIOR ADVISOR, TOKENOMICS AND TRADING

  • Leading figure with pivotal tech-centric knowledge and experience pioneering innovation and driving transformative change
  • Founder, builder, and investor with a wealth of experience in AI, web3, and disruptive tech, developing ground-breaking, strategically positioned businesses
  • Board member of several global companies, leveraging extensive experience to drive performance and growth
  • Web3 pioneer and founding member Dubai Global Blockchain Council 2016
  • Former Director DMCC Free Zone – Commodities Trader, and Economic zone expert with two decades successfully developing commodity and digital ecosystems

Elon Bezalely

CHIEF RESEARCH AND OPERATIONS OFFICER

  • Former quant trader at a London based hedge fund trading equity options, convertible bonds, distressed debt, and yield based fixed income instruments
  • Former FX options market maker and Head of Options at the First International Bank of Israel – Head Office, Tel Aviv
  • Former principal and the COO of Lembex Global Investments, an Israel based firm providing retail trading platforms for various derivatives products
  • 30 years of experience with derivatives and trading systems
  • M.A. in Mathematics from Cambridge University