Our Team
Mr. Yaacov Shirazi, the founder of Aqua-Index, recognized the need and potential for a method of integrating the public trade of water into a global market, along with wheat, corn, coffee, sugar, and other commodities.
He has spent the past few years developing and perfecting such a method, which is now duly protected and patented. Making an investment in water has now become possible, using traditional financial instruments such as certificates, bonds, futures, etc.
Yaacov Shirazi
Founder, chairman and CEO
- Developer and founder of Aqua-Index and of the intellectual property for trading water as a commodity
- Extended experience in financing and trading commodities, in both the agricultural and energy sectors
- Several years of involvement in high tech projects
Yomtob Sabah
Vice Chairman
- Member of a banking family with over 40 years of business and banking experience
- Former financial analyst at Banque de Paris & des Pays-Bas – Head Office, Paris
- Former researcher at the M&A
- Department of Lehman Brothers – New York
- Former member of the Board of Directors of Mizrahi Tefahot Bank in Israel
- International business entrepreneur engaged in financial syndications on three continents
Robert Gaffney
Aqua-Index Exchange CEO
- Accomplished senior executive officer, with deep roots in all areas of the financial derivatives and prime brokerage industries
- Founder of Canterbury Business Solutions, where he has been providing consulting services and technology enabled solutions to the financial services industry
- Played a pivotal role in directing the global acquisition and integration of ABN’s operational and technology platform, as COO and Managing Director of UBS Securities, LLC, Prime Brokerage Services Division, and the integration of UBS’s Listed Derivatives business onto that operational and technology platform
- COO of global operations of ABN AMRO Global Futures, with broad responsibilities across all operating areas of that company
- From 1984 through 1996, he was Senior Vice President at Citicorp Futures
- B.A. in Financial Management from Hunter College in New York
Ronald Filler
Exchange Public Director
- Professor of Law and Director of the Financial Services Law Institute at the New York Law School
- Public Director of the NFA
- Former Managing Director and Director of Institutional Futures Administration
- Former Director, Capital Markets Prime Services Division of Lehman Brothers Inc.
- Former Partner and Senior Futures Lawyer at Vedder Price Kaufman & Kammholz in Chicago
- Former Managing Partner, Filler Weiner Zaner & Associates, a Futures Commission Merchant and Commodity Pool Operator in Chicago
- Former Director of Managed Futures and Associate Counsel, at ContiCommodity Services Inc., a Futures Commission Merchant in Chicago
- Former Lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.
Don Horwitz
Aqua-Index Exchange CRO
- Financial senior executive with extensive legal, regulatory business and management experience
- Managing Director at Oyster Consulting, LLC, a firm supporting financial services businesses with audit, regulatory, compliance, financial, strategic management, operations trading and technology services
- General Counsel, CRO and Secretary of the North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc.
- General Counsel Managing Director, CCO and Secretary of Intellectual Property Exchange International
- Managing Director, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of OneChicago, LLC
- Executive Director and Senior Attorney- Exchange Traded Derivatives at UBS, AG
- General Counsel of ABN AMRO Global Futures
- Head of Compliance at BrokerTec Futures Exchange and Clearing Company/Eurex U.S.
- General Counsel and Head of Compliance at Sakura Dellsher, Inc.
- B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Wayne State University Law School
- Adjunct professor in financial services law
Linda Allen
Aqua-Index Special Adviser and Risk Consultant
- William F. Aldinger Chair in Banking and Finance at Baruch College, City University of New York
- Research areas: Risk measurement and management focusing on systemic risk, credit risk and operational risk; the evolution of financial markets and bank regulation; the organization of financial institutions
- Author of: Credit Risk Measurement In and Out of Crisis: New Approaches to Value at Risk and Other Paradigms (with Anthony Saunders – Wiley, 2010); Capital Markets and Institutions: A Global View (Wiley, 1997); Understanding Market, Credit and Operational Risk (Blackwell, 2004)
- Co-Editor of the Journal of Credit Risk
Paul Peterson
Economics and Business consultant
- Professor at the University Of Illinois School Of Business
- Director of Commodity Research & Product Development at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for 23 years
- Research and Market analysis at the Chicago Board of Trade
- Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics, an M.S. and a B.S. (with honors), all from the University of Illinois
Gerald L. Fishman
International and Legal Regulatory Officer
- Former Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Rosenthal Collins Group, a Chicago based international futures and derivatives brokerage and trading firm
- Former principal at his own law firm for 21 years where he concentrated in all facets of financial services, including acquisitions and divestitures and regulatory and compliance activities
- As well as his law degree (J.D.), received from the Northwestern University School of Law, Mr. Fishman holds an undergraduate degree (B.S.) in Investment Management/Business Finance from the Northwestern University School of Business (now Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management)
Ben Moskovits
Aqua-Index Senior Business Development Officer
- CEO of BMOR Advisors, a strategic advisory firm focused on providing business model, operational, legal and fundraising advisory services to early and growth stage companies in the fintech, proptech, medical device, blockchain and consumer app spaces
- CEO-Founder Kihnect, a stealth start-up developing enterprise SaaS solutions for employee engagement and professional growth in the enterprise
- Former senior attorney at Morgan Stanley with coverage responsibility for listed and OTC derivatives, FX, repo, equity options, precious metals and commodities trading desks and lines of business
- Former senior attorney at Citibank, advising lending, structured investments and middle markets M&A businesses
Dan Elias
Aqua-Index Business Consultant
- Accomplished project finance, P3 and M&A business and legal professional with 30+ years of experience in the water industry, having successfully completed dozens of infrastructure and P3 projects varying in size, structure, delivery method, scope and complexity
- Routinely engaged in domestic and cross-border transactions involving regulated utilities, asset management companies, contract operators, engineering, consulting and construction firms focused on the water sector
- Graduate of City University of New York, Queens College, from where he received a JD in Law and BA in Economics
- AV rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell
Elon Bezalely
ChIEf RESEARCH officer
- Former quant trader at a London based hedge fund trading equity options, convertible bonds, distressed debt, and yield based fixed income instruments
- Former FX options market maker and Head of Options at the First International Bank of Israel – Head Office, Tel Aviv
- Former principal and the COO of Lembex Global Investments, an Israel based firm providing retail trading platforms for various derivatives products
- 20 years of experience with derivatives and trading systems
- M.A. in Mathematics from Cambridge University