Ira Kawaller is the principal and founder of Derivatives Litigation Services. Derivatives have been a consistent focus of interest for Kawaller for most of his career.
Before Derivatives Litigation Services, he was the President of Kawaller & Co., LLC, started in 1997, to assist commercial enterprises with their strategic and accounting issues pertaining to derivative instruments. The firm also provided litigation support in connection with a limited number of high-profile derivatives-related court cases. In addition to his activities under Kawaller & Company, Ira Kawaller also was the managing partner of the Kawaller Fund, a derivatives-only hedge fund, from 2003–2011. Prior positions included employment with Chicago Mercantile Exchange, J. Aron & Company, AT&T, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
He also served on the board of Hatteras Financial Corp (which merged with Annaly Capital Management, Inc.), while participating on their risk committee and compensation committee and on the board of the International Association of Financial Engineers (now the International Association for Quantitative Finance) and the Financial Accounting Standard Board's Derivatives Implementation Group.
Kawaller holds a Ph.D. in economics from Purdue University and has held adjunct professorships at Columbia University and Polytechnic University. He writes and lectures largely focusing on derivative contract market activity.
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