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Guests & Co-Hosts

KEVIN O’NEILL

Kevin O’Neill is our Wednesday morning sports guy. His segment emphasizes what happens off the field as much as what happens on the field. All businesses have their intrigue, but the inner workings of sports organizations find their way into the public domain frequently. Unless a rant from the Chief spills into Kevin’s segment (not an unusual occurrence), he will highlight some of those sports related business issues; but be advised that those highlights usually come with an opinion. Read more.

RUSSELL RHOADS

Russell Rhoads is a PHD and currently a Professor at Loyola University Chicago. Order his latest book ‘The VIX Trader’s Handbook: The history, patterns, and strategies every volatility trader needs to know‘. Previously, Mr. Rhoads served as the Head of Derivatives Research at TABB Group. Before joining TABB Group, Russell was Director of Product Advancement, Global Derivatives at CBOE Global Markets. His career has included positions at a variety of firms including Highland Capital Management, Caldwell & Orkin Investment Counsel, Balyasny Asset Management, and Millennium Management. He is a financial author and editor having contributed to multiple magazines and edited several books for Wiley publishing. He is the author of six market related books including Trading VIX Derivatives, Option Spread Trading, Trading Weekly Options, and Options Strategies for Advisors and Institutions. He authored material to be included in Level II of the CFA program and material for the CMT designation. He is a double graduate of the University of Memphis with a BBA (’92) and an MS (’94) in Finance and also received a Master’s Certificate in Financial Engineering from the Illinois Tech in 2003. Russell received a PhD from Oklahoma State University in 2019.

Tom Chippas

Thomas Chippas is the Chief Executive Officer at ErisX, a futures exchange and clearinghouse offering a platform for trading a number of cryptocurrencies, as well as bitcoin futures. In partnership with RSBIX, ErisX will now add Sporting Event Based Futures contracts to its suite of services to meet the hedging needs of commercial market participants. Previously, Chippas served as the Chief Operating Officer at Axoni.

Jeff Ifrah

Jeff Ifrah is the Founding Partner at Ifrah PLLC and a part of RSBIX. Jeff is an advocate keenly focused on delivering results for his clients – on understanding the problems they face and developing innovative strategies to resolve them. He cut his teeth as a trial lawyer and officer in the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps and as trial counsel to the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command at Fort Monmouth. Jeff then gained invaluable experience as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey.

He went on to become of counsel to the global law firm Paul Hastings and then a shareholder in the litigation department of another global firm, Greenberg Traurig. Often litigating cases against the federal government, he achieved a string of victories in cases involving criminal and civil antitrust laws, securities laws and the Civil False Claims Act. He defended some of the most well-known businesses in the country in industries such as pharmaceuticals, healthcare and technology.

Jeff is widely recognized for his legal excellence. Chambers USA has recognized Jeff for three years in a row as one of America’s leading lawyers for litigation in the areas of White Collar Crime and Government Investigations. The authoritative guide notes Jeff’s dedication to “getting a speedy resolution of contentious matters through application of good commercial sense and pragmatic legal thinking” and his “honest and hard-working” approach to matters. The previous co-chair of two key ABA white collar subcommittees, Jeff has also been recognized by LexisNexis as an expert in healthcare and securities fraud. Nightingale’s Healthcare News named him one of 12 outstanding fraud and compliance lawyers in the United States.

Jeff is also active in the publishing arena. He currently serves on the editorial board of the World Online Gambling Law Report. A leading national authority in federal sentencing laws, Jeff is co-author of Federal Sentencing for Business Crimes, the only comprehensive treatise on federal sentencing in the context of business and white-collar crimes. The two-volume treatise, published by international legal publisher LexisNexis, is a key resource relied on by prosecutors and defense attorneys throughout the United States.