Richard Kerschner is the co-chair of the IIEL Advisory Board. He is an experienced senior executive, board member, and lawyer with expertise in growing and repositioning companies within rapidly evolving industries.

Mr. Kerschner is currently the CEO of DirectBooks, and has formerly held a Senior Advisor role at Elixirr, a UK-based global consulting firm, where he partners with key clients to solve their full range of strategic growth challenges. He also selectively serves as a member of boards of directors and advisory boards.

Mr. Kerschner has held leadership roles (including CEO, General Counsel, and Chief Corporate Development Officer) within market-dominant as well as disruptive companies in the financial technology, trading venues, market utilities, futures exchanges, and mobile communications sectors.

Mr. Kerschner’s career highlights include leading a post-merger integration as the Interim-CEO of BrokerTec, the market-dominant U.S. Treasury trading platform; a leading executive team role in the governance and business transformation of CLS Bank International, the Systemically Important Financial Market Utility for the FX market; and a leading executive role in the transformation process of NYMEX, the world’s largest commodity futures exchange (including governance changes, private equity sale process, IPO process, NYSE listing, and merger transaction with the CME Group).

Mr. Kerschner has also led multiple transactions including acquisitions, strategic investments and partnerships, and has served on several FinTech boards. He has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Georgetown Law. He was born in Argentina and is fluent in Spanish.