Dr. Ho, who most recently was the chief executive of the Taiwan Futures Exchange, will spearhead FIA Asia's efforts to promote the further development of the region's derivatives markets for the benefit of end users, intermediaries and exchanges.

"Asia's derivatives markets hold enormous promise, and we believe that cross-border trading can and will play a vital role in their development," said John Damgard, President of the Futures Industry Association.

"Dr. Ho's success in transforming Taifex into one of the fastest growing and most dynamic derivatives marketplaces in Asia could not have been achieved without a clear understanding of the regulatory and market structures necessary to attract liquidity from both domestic and international market participants.

"We are confident that his experience at both Taifex and the Chicago Board of Trade, as well as his contacts across the region, will serve him well in bringing together exchanges and market participants to assist each other in developing these markets to the greatest extent possible."

The FIA is making the announcement on the first day of the FIA Asia Derivatives Conference that it is holding in Mumbai in cooperation with four leading Indian derivatives exchanges. This will be a pan-Asian event, much like the FIA's conference last year in Beijing, China, and will feature speakers from Dubai, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan as well as from the U.S. and Europe.
FIA Asia will be based in Asia and will seek to promote the further development of Asia-Pacific derivatives exchanges through the following activities:

• collect and disseminate information about exchanges, clearing organizations and regulators in the area;
• support the adoption of international standards and best practices in product design, exchange membership, clearing functions, market integrity and financial safety rules;
• work for better public understanding of the benefits of derivatives markets;
• encourage cross-border trading and improved access rights;
• present a unified industry voice to market officials;
• establish working groups to address specific industry issues; and
• promote cross-industry discussion through annual conferences and other events.

Membership will be open initially to clearing firms, exchanges, accounting and law firms, technology providers and other companies active in the Asia-Pacific derivatives markets. Membership will be voluntary; the organization will be a purely private sector trade association and will not be affiliated with any governmental or regulatory authorities.

After joining Taifex in November 2000, Dr. Ho and his colleagues lobbied relentlessly for support from financial regulators and local players to remove barriers to trading and to increase foreign participation. Among the measures that were taken in response to this effort were a substantial reduction in transaction tax rates, permission for foreign investors to trade Taifex products for non-hedging purpose, and the creation of omnibus accounts.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Ho worked for nine years at the Chicago Board of Trade as senior director for Asian business development. During that time, he traveled extensively in the Asia-Pacific region to promote CBOT products to regulators, exchanges, futures commission merchants and end-users.

He has a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a Masters in economics from North Carolina State University, and a B.S. and a M.S. degree from National Taiwan University.

The FIA is a non-profit trade association for the futures industry based in Washington, D.C. Its membership includes the leading international futures commission merchants and more than 40 derivatives exchanges and clearing organizations from around the world.