KU News Release

KU graduate named to federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission

LAWRENCE — The U.S. Senate has confirmed the presidential nomination of University of Kansas graduate and Fort Scott native Jill Maycumber Sommers to commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Sommers, who graduated from Fort Scott High School in 1987 and earned a KU bachelor’s degree in political science in 2006, previously served as head of U.S. Regulatory Affairs at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and associate director of government affairs at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, according to the White House announcement. She earlier worked in the Washington, D.C., office of Kansas Sen. Bob Dole.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is charged with protecting market users and the public from fraud, manipulation and abusive practices related to the sale of commodity and financial futures and options. In recent years, trading in futures contracts has expanded rapidly beyond traditional physical and agricultural commodities into a vast array of financial instruments, including foreign currencies, U.S. and foreign government securities and U.S. and foreign stock indices.

Among the markets the commission monitors is the Kansas City Board of Trade, a commodity futures and options exchange specializing in hard red winter wheat.

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