Rostin Behnam

Rostin Behnam (born February 16, 1978) is an American lawyer and government official who currently serves as the 15th chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Prior to leading the CFTC, he served as one of five-member CFTC commissioners, having been nominated on July 13, 2017 by President Donald Trump to fulfill a term expiring June 19, 2021. Behnam was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on August 3, 2017, and sworn in as commissioner on September 6, 2017. On January 21, 2021, the commission members unanimously elected Behnam to be acting chairman following President Joe Biden' s inauguration and the resignation of Heath Tarbert, who served as chairman since July 15, 2019. Behnam was re-nominated by President Biden as a commissioner, and simultaneously nominated to chair the agency for a new 5-year term through June 19, 2026. Behnam was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on December 15, 2021, and sworn in as CFTC's chairman and chief administrative officer on January 4, 2022.

Prior to his CFTC service, Behnam served as senior counsel on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry for U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. He has also worked on a proprietary equities trading desk, practiced law in New York City and with the Bureau of Securities in the state of New Jersey’s Office of Attorney General, and co-founded a short-lived regional commuter airline.

Behnam’s terms as CFTC Commissioner and chairman coincided with a historical period of growth and innovation in the derivatives industry sparked by the rapid development and adoption of decentralized finance (DeFi). His time at the CFTC also straddled the COVID-19 pandemic, which along with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, severe and catastrophic weather events, surging inflation, and related and responsive monetary policy, corresponded with record level volatility in the global commodity markets throughout the early 2020s.

An advocate for the financial reform efforts born out of the Global Financial Crisis, Behnam supported completion and ongoing revision of rules implementing the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Since joining the commission, Behnam has led and promoted workstreams aimed at leveraging public-private partnerships to address ongoing and emerging risks related to LIBOR reform, climate-related market risk, retail participation in the digital asset commodity markets, risk concentration within financial market infrastructure, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the CFTC and larger derivatives and financial markets. He is a leading advocate for federal regulation of the digital asset markets, calling on the White House for leadership and testifying before Congress on the subject.