Ed Tilly: Trading Up

Edward T. Tilly (WCAS87) started his career as a clerk on the trading floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, eventually becoming a market maker and trader. Tilly, who is now CEO of the CBOE, loved trading because it is statistical and risk based. (The options exchange is a marketplace where traders buy and sell options — the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific amount of a given stock at a specified price during a specified period of time.) As technology began to evolve, Tilly says it was clear he had to make a choice: remain a trader or choose a different career path within the exchange. He was already involved with the CBOE through committee involvement and as a member of the board when CBEO’s then-chairman and CEO Bill Brodsky offered him an opportunity on the management team. Tilly took it and has steadily worked his way to the top. “Since it began, the CBOE has been committed to product innovation, state-of-the-art systems and customer education,” he says. “Bringing valuable investment products and services to our customers continues to be extremely rewarding to me.”