Gail Osten

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Gail Osten Occupation Director, Corporate Communications Employer Chicago Board Options Exchange Location Chicago, Illinois, USA Gail Osten was an American corporate communications executive and financial journalist best known for her work in media relations and industry communications in the Chicago futures and options markets, including her role as director of corporate communications at the Cboe Global Markets (Cboe). She was well-liked and appreciated for her broad scope of knowledge about the industry and her direct approach. She died on March 19, 2015 from cancer. Background Osten spent more than four decades in Chicago’s derivatives industry, working across marketing, education, public relations and journalism as exchanges expanded from open outcry trading floors to electronic trading platforms and as futures and options became widely used by asset managers, proprietary trading firms and other institutional investors. In that environment, she was regarded by colleagues as a seasoned professional who helped explain exchange products, market structure and regulatory developments to the financial press and broader public. From 1999 through 2001, she was senior vice president of marketing and public relations for Transwestern Group, the umbrella organization for Transwestern Commercial Services, a national commercial real estate firm with 28 offices, and for Transwestern Investment Company, a privately held commercial property investment firm. Osten has also done freelance marketing, public relations, and writing for publications including the Wall Street Journal, FOW, SFO, and others. John J. Lothian & Company / MarketsWiki Before joining Cboe Global Markets (Cboe), Osten worked as a contractor for John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. during MarketsWiki's formative period. In that role, she concentrated on developing and refining the options content on the wiki, drawing on her experience at Chicago exchanges and in financial media to build profiles of contracts, strategies, firms, and key individuals active in the listed options business. Her work helped establish MarketsWiki’s early coverage of options as a structured, cross-referenced resource intended for traders, asset managers, swap dealers, and others seeking background on derivatives markets, while also supporting the project’s editorial standards and tone. Chicago Board Options Exchange / Cboe Global Markets Osten served as director of corporate communications for the Chicago Board Options Exchange, now part of Cboe Global Markets, where she acted as a primary media contact during a period that included the introduction of new index options products, changes in regulatory oversight and the company’s evolution into a multi-asset, multi-venue exchange group. As spokeswoman for the exchange, she handled press inquiries on topics ranging from technology issues that temporarily affected electronic trading to litigation over patents and regulatory matters, helping to explain how Cboe’s markets functioned and how the organization responded to events affecting price discovery and liquidity. Her statements on policy changes and supervisory rules reflected the exchange’s efforts to demonstrate effective risk management and compliance as options trading volumes and average daily volume grew and as regulators focused more closely on the controls of exchange operators and banks and swap dealers active on their platforms. During this period, Osten worked with senior Cboe executives, including board members and management who were leading the company’s strategy in index options, volatility products and market technology, and she coordinated with contacts at other exchanges and index providers when joint initiatives or marketing arrangements required consistent messaging. She was listed as a public communications contact for Cboe in investor and governance materials, underscoring her role as a point of contact between the exchange group and analysts, investors and market participants following the development of its business and the broader derivatives landscape. Chicago Mercantile Exchange Earlier, Osten spent 18 years at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, now part of CME Group (CME), where she worked during a period of rapid growth and innovation in exchange-traded derivatives. At the Merc, she held marketing and communications roles that involved explaining new contract specifications, product launches, and educational initiatives as the exchange expanded beyond its original focus on agricultural and currency futures into a broad mix of interest rate, equity index, and other financial contracts. Her work helped present the uses of these instruments for hedging, price discovery, and risk management to trading firms, asset managers, and corporate end users at a time when open outcry trading remained central but was increasingly complemented by electronic trading systems. Her position at the Merc placed her alongside product managers and senior exchange executives involved in designing and promoting benchmark futures and options that became widely followed by global markets. As the exchange invested in technology and clearing infrastructure, she participated in communications describing the role of central counterparties, margining and settlement processes, and the importance of robust operational and regulatory frameworks for market integrity. Chicago Board of Trade and MidAmerica Commodity Exchange Osten also worked at the Chicago Board of Trade and the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange, two venues that helped define Chicago’s prominence as a global center for listed derivatives trading. At these exchanges, she held communications and marketing roles that required her to explain contract features and exchange initiatives to customers and the trade press, including developments in agricultural, financial, and other futures and options products. This work took place as exchanges were gradually modernizing their trading environments and looking toward electronic access and broader international participation, while still relying heavily on floor-based open outcry trading. Her experience at the Board of Trade and MidAm gave her direct exposure to the day-to-day concerns of floor traders, clearing members and institutional customers, including issues surrounding liquidity, open interest, settlement procedures and hedging practices. The combination of these roles contributed to her later ability to translate industry-specific terminology and market structure concepts for both professional and general audiences. NQLX Osten’s background also included work for NQLX, a joint-venture single-stock futures exchange launched in the early 2000s, when U.S. regulators permitted single-stock futures and market participants explored new ways to structure equity-related derivatives. At NQLX she supported communications and marketing for a new marketplace seeking to build liquidity in cash-settled single-stock and index futures, at a time when electronic trading and increased venue competition were reshaping how asset managers and swap dealers executed and hedging strategies in equity-linked instruments. SFO magazine and journalism In addition to her exchange roles, Osten served as executive editor of SFO (Stocks, Futures and Options) magazine, a publication that was aimed at active traders and professionals in derivatives markets. In that position, she oversaw editorial direction, coordinated contributors, and worked with industry sources to produce educational content explaining trading strategies, risk management approaches, and market developments across futures, options and related products. Her journalism training and industry experience enabled her to bridge the gap between practitioners and readers by presenting technical topics in straightforward, practical language. Through SFO and related writing, she contributed to a broader industry effort to improve understanding of derivatives among both professional and self-directed traders as the availability of online trading platforms and market data increased. Her editorial work also reflected broader changes in the industry, including the rise of electronic trading, growth in volatility and index products, and ongoing regulatory reforms affecting banks, swap dealers, and exchange operators. Education Osten was born in Wichita, Kansas, on October 19, 1949, and later became a long-time resident of Elmhurst, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago closely tied to the city’s financial and exchange community. She graduated from York Community High School in Elmhurst in 1967, where she developed an interest in writing and reporting that led her toward a career in journalism and communications. She went on to attend Northern Illinois University, majoring in journalism and earning a degree in 1971, providing the foundation in reporting, editing, and writing that she applied throughout her career in media, marketing, and corporate communications. References

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