Editor’s Letter

It is my honor to write to you now as the Editor of The Journal of Derivatives (see the September 10 press release at http://www. maxwell-consulting.com/jod_editor_announcement.pdf). I inherit this role for a journal that I consider a leading research source for practitioners and academics in the derivatives field. I am grateful for this opportunity. I succeeded the founder, Professor Stephen Figlewski, in this position. The excellence of JOD content is truly the excellence of Professor Stephen Figlewski. His wide-ranging expertise and in-depth reviews created a continuum of excellent issues over a span exceeding 25 years. The press release I link above and my website (maxwell-consulting. com) show my background. In brief, I have mixed heritage. My education is theoretical physics. My first career encompassed applied physics, mathematics, and electrical engineering with industrial research and academic employers. Lured to Citibank in the early 1990s to create derivative risk and pricing models, I learned and practiced quantitative finance, risk and portfolio management, derivative trading, executive roles, and financial investigations over the course of the subsequent quarter-century. My financial employers have been banks, a rating agency, bond insurers, an asset manager, and consulting firms. The “world of derivatives” is both huge and hugely impactful to the global economy. The content and concepts “we”—meaning “readers, authors, reviewers, production editors, Board members, and the publisher”—create have the potential to improve our world. This thought is a great entrée to state our published mission at http://jod .iijournals.com/journal-information: