Leo Melamed (born March 20, 1932) is an American attorney, finance executive, and a pioneer of financial futures. He is the chairman emeritus of CME Group (formerly the Chicago Mercantile Exchange).^[1]

Personal Life

Melamed was born Leibel Melamdovich in 1932 in Bialystok, Poland into a Jewish family, to two school teachers, Fayga (Barakin) Melamdovich and Isaac Melamdovich (a mathematics teacher). In 1939, following Germany's invasion of Poland and with the outbreak of World War II, his family fled to Lithuania to avoid capture by the Nazis. In 1940, the Japanese consul general to Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, issued his family a life-saving transit visa, and they made the long trek across Siberia to safe haven in Tsuruga, Japan. They crossed the Pacific to the United States in the spring of 1941, and the family settled in Chicago.

Melamed married Betty Sattler on December 26, 1953. The couple has three children: Idelle Sharon, Jordan Norman and David Jeffrey.

Melamed is an avid contract bridge competitor and often pairs with his wife, Betty.

Melamed's personal life and his strained relationship with his son are the subjects of the 2012 documentary Futures Past, written and directed by his son, Jordan Melamed.