Advantage Futures boasts an extremely reputable and experienced management team. Across the firm, department by department, we have brought together the highest caliber professionals in the industry committed to premier client service.

Our commitment to the futures industry is best represented by the quality of our employees. Advantage Futures allows our clients to focus solely on trading while we take care of the rest.

Joseph Guinan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Joseph Guinan is the Founding Chairman and CEO of Advantage Futures. Through his leadership, Advantage has expanded from a boutique with 28 employees in 2003 to one of the preeminent clearing firms in the futures industry. Before establishing Advantage in 2003, Mr. Guinan served as President and CEO of Fuji Futures Inc. (one of three companies merged to form Mizuho Securities USA) where he worked from 1995 to 2003.  Prior to Fuji, Joe held various trading and management positions at Merrill Lynch, Kidder Peabody, and Irving Trust from 1981 to 1995. Mr. Guinan is a registered floor broker and a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Mr. Guinan serves on the Boards of Mundelein Seminary, Bay Harbor Yacht Club, and is Chairman of the Illinois Council on Economic Education. Mr. Guinan holds a BA in economics and an MBA in finance and accounting from Columbia University.

John Schlaefke, Chief Administrative Officer

John Schlaefke joined Advantage as Chief Administrative Officer in 2005. His responsibilities include oversight of the following vital functional areas of the firm: Accounting, Human Resources, and Administration and Sales Support. Prior to Advantage, John gained a wealth of experience on the trading side of the industry as the Chief Operating Officer of Harrison Trading, LLC. There, John oversaw the day-to-day management of the company as well as the trading activities, operations, administration, HR, accounting, and risk departments.  Prior to Harrison, John had over ten years of experience in the futures industry working for proprietary trading firms.  He has a BA from Concordia University, Chicago.

Lisa Jones, Chief Compliance Officer

Prior to her position at Advantage Futures, Lisa Jones served in a variety of compliance roles within The Fuji Bank Ltd.’s subsidiaries, including Chief Compliance Officer of Fuji Futures Inc. She began her career in 1990 at Lind-Waldock & Company, a registered Futures Commission Merchant, where she served as Compliance Officer.  In 1995 Lisa joined the Bank of Montreal and Harris Bank as the US Treasury Compliance Manager, where she was primarily responsible for overseeing US Treasury activities, including exchange trade and over the counter markets. Lisa has a BBA from Loyola University of Chicago, and maintains licenses for Series: 3, 7, and 24.

William Steele, Chief Credit Officer, Risk Management

Prior to attaining this position at Advantage Futures, William Steele gained experience at Fuji Futures and Mizuho Securities, Linnco Futures Group, LLC, and Index Futures Group/Brokers Resource. Bill’s futures industry career began as a retail client in 1979, and has encompassed a broad range of experiences, including order desk execution, marketing, research and trading, compliance, margins, and risk management. For the past 20 years Bill has focused primarily on Risk Management. Bill possesses both a trader’s perspective as well as an understanding of the role each department plays in the risk management process. Bill was elevated to the role overseeing the Operations Department in addition to the Credit/Risk Management Departments in the fall of 2006. His process-oriented mindset helps Advantage Futures focus on minimizing all operational risks in the same methodical manner that his modeling and stress testing have helped minimize the firm’s market risk. Bill has a BS from Northern Illinois University, and completed his graduate work in economics at DePaul University.

Thomas Guinan, Chief Information Officer

Thomas Guinan has managed the Information Technology team at Advantage Futures since its inception in 2003. Tom’s career in the futures industry began on the CME trading floor in 1987. Over the years, he has gained an uncommon blend of industry experience and IT knowledge. This unique base of understanding has allowed Tom to create and maintain an IT team at Advantage Futures, focused on providing the fastest, most reliable trading network possible. Tom has a BBA from the University of Texas, as well as an MBA and MS in computer science from the University of Chicago.

Jim Haney, Chief Financial Officer

Jim is responsible for all finance and accounting functions at Advantage. He has over 20 years in the futures industry. Prior to joining Advantage, Jim served as the Director of Accounting for CSC Futures and VP of Finance for RJ O’Brien for ten years. Jim is a CPA and earned a BA in Accounting from Loras College in 1986.

Iqbal Brainch, Chief Marketing Officer

Iqbal Brainch joined Advantage Futures in January 2008 as the Chief Marketing Officer. Iqbal is responsible for managing the company’s marketing, branding and public relations strategies, and successfully executing integrated marketing plans. He brings 12 years of marketing and advertising experience to Advantage Futures, and was previously Associate Director of Marketing for Chicago Mercantile Exchange, responsible for marketing some of CME’s fastest growing product lines. Before CME, Iqbal served as Vice President, Director of Brand Marketing for Van Kampen Investments, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley. His career began in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble. Iqbal has a BA in economics and biology from Washington University, and a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Michael McLaughlin, President, Institutional Sales

As President of Institutional Sales at Advantage Futures, Michael McLaughlin oversees the CME, CBOT and Global Execution Desk teams. Prior to Advantage Futures, Michael worked at Fuji Futures as the Sales Manager, and managed the CME, CBOT, and upstairs sales staff for eight years. Michael began his career in the financial industry at Merrill Lynch in 1986, where he served as the Manager of short-term interest rates until 1995. Michael has a BS in finance from the University of Iowa.

William Harrington, Executive Vice President, Sales Manager

William Harrington joined Advantage Futures in January 2004. His current position of Executive Vice President, Sales Manager, Bill is responsible for overseeing, managing and coordinating all of the firm’s sales activities including those of the Professional Trader Group, Business Development, Institutional Sales, Value-Added Sales, and the 24-Hour Global Execution Desk. Prior to this position, Bill served as Senior Vice President of Institutional Business Development. Bill is a 21 year industry veteran, having previous experience in Institutional Sales on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange trading floor. He worked closely with large institutional accounts emphasizing interest rate, foreign currency and equity futures and options trading. Bill began his career in the futures industry with Merrill Lynch Futures in 1987, before joining Fuji Securities (currently known as Mizuho Securities USA) in 1995 as Vice President of Institutional Sales. Bill has a BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

Michael O’Malley, Senior Vice President, Business Development

Michael O’Malley joined Advantage Futures in November 2005, and is currently the Senior Vice President of Business Development. Prior to joining Advantage Futures, Mike spent 23 years with RJ O’Brien, starting at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and working his way up to become Chief Operating Officer and Chief Risk Officer. Mike is a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and has a BS in marketing and management from St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota. 

Terence Duffy, President, Professional Trader Group

Terence Duffy currently oversees the Professional Trader Group and Client Service teams at Advantage Futures, and was part of its inception in 2003 as a founding member. Terry began his career in the financial industry at Merrill Lynch as Computer Operator in 1979. He then moved on to Kidder Peabody where he worked as an integral part of their cash/futures bond arbitrage. Terry later became an independent floor broker in the treasury bills at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In 1982, Terry participated in the launch of the S&P Stock Index at the CME where he traded actively until 1989, when he shifted to an independent trader of the Eurodollar pit. In the summer of 2000, he joined Fuji Futures in a sales role for the Professional Trader Group on the CME. Terry has a BBA from St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin.

Michael O’Hara, Senior Vice President, Professional Traders Group

Mr. O’Hara has been a member of the Advantage Futures Professional Trader Group Sales and Client Service team since its inception in June 2003. Prior to Advantage, Mike managed the client service department at Mizuho Securities USA (formerly Fuji Futures Inc.) since 2001. He started as a clerk on the CME floor working for Merrill Lynch. Mike holds a bachelor degree from University of Illinois and holds a Series 3 license.

William Weldon, Executive Vice President, Value Added Sales

Prior to Advantage Futures, William Weldon was a Senior Portfolio Manager for Northshore Asset Management where he wrote and executed proprietary asset allocation models.  Before that, he held the position of Managing Director at Barclays Capital Inc. from 1988 through 2003.  Bill was responsible for establishing and overseeing the Barclays’ US exchange traded derivatives effort as a major player on the Chicago and New York Exchanges.  He previously held the position of Vice President at Kidder Peabody & Co. from March 1980 through May 1988, where his various roles included management of the sales and floor staff, proprietary options trading, and US Government and Agency sales.  Prior to this, Bill was a municipal bond trader for Nuveen & Company.  With over thirty years in the financial industry, he has extensive knowledge and supervisory experience in many financial products and services.  Bill has a BBA in economics from Loyola University, and a MBA in finance from DePaul University.

Toshiyuki Suzuki, Executive Vice President, Alternative Investments

Toshiyuki Suzuki is the Executive Vice President of Alternative Investments and Internal Auditing, and has been with Advantage Futures since 2005. Prior to joining Advantage Futures, Toshiyuki was the Director and Executive Vice President of Fuji Futures Inc., and Executive Director of Mizuho Securities USA Inc. With 25 years of experience in the financial industry, he brings tremendous insight and understanding of financial products and offerings to Advantage Futures. Toshiyuki is a graduate of the Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan. 

Philip Singer, Operations Manager

Philip Singer joined Advantage Futures as Operations Manager in May 2005. Prior to Advantage Futures, Phil managed the LFG Division of Refco since April 2000, and had served as Operations Manager for LFG, LLC for 11 years before that. At LFG, Phil supervised clearing operations for all North American futures exchanges, as well as non-U.S. customer business in individual equity options as a restricted member of CBOE. Phil is an expert in the GMI system, and has a broad range of experience in futures and options clearing operations dating back to 1979. He is a graduate of Dominican University in River Forest, IL, and holds professional licenses for Series: 3, 7 and 63.