Active Members
Duncan D. Russell, BS '71, MBA '73
Duncan Russell retired in 2005 from a seventeen-year career as a market-maker at the Chicago Board of Trade, trading options and futures for his own account. During this time, Duncan served on several CBOT committees and was also retained as an options consultant by Farmers Commodities, a major clearing member of the exchange. After retiring, Duncan completed studies in Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) at the local community college. His success in this endeavor led to his working with the college to create two new HVAC degrees and to develop and teach a business class for contractors.
Prior to his career at the CBOT, Duncan was employed by The Andersons, an Ohio agribusiness company. He held management positions within the Grain Group in the areas of planning, merchandising, hedging, and marketing. While at The Andersons, Duncan testified before the Senate Agricultural Committee on behalf of the grain industry and travelled extensively to explore direct international trade with the governments of Korea, Taiwan and USSR, as well as with companies in Western Europe and Japan.
Duncan earned an MBA with distinction from Cornell, and in 2008, he served as the 35th Annual Reunion Chairman for his 1973 class. In 1971, he graduated from Cornell with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Duncan lives in Aurora, IL with his wife Gail, also a 1971 Cornell graduate. Together they have two sons: Gordon, a graduate of Dartmouth and Warren, a senior at Cornell.
