About DME

H.E. Abdullah Al-Harthy is the Undersecretary, Ministry of Finance, Oman. He was the CFO at the Oman Investment Authority, and was responsible for financial affairs and investment operations in addition to overseeing business strategy and information technology units. With more than 18 years of experience with the fund and its subsidiaries, Al-Harthy has occupied a number of leadership roles in the areas of direct investment, portfolios management, investment operations in addition to corporate management through chairing and membership of a number of boards of directors inside and outside the Sultanate. Since 2005 he has been directly involved in establishing partnerships with sovereign institutions in Vietnam, Brunei and Uzbekistan. Al-Harthy holds an MBA from IMD, in Switzerland, and a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Sultan Qaboos University in 2001. He is a certified financial analyst (CFA) since 2004, and a member of the CFA Institute in the United States of America.

Senior Managing Director,

Global Head of Commodities & Options Products

Derek Sammann has served as CME Group's Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Commodities & Options Products since 2014. He is responsible for leading the development, execution and management of CME Group's global Commodities portfolio, including the Energy, Metals and Agricultural business lines.  He also globally leads the company’s cross-asset class Options business.  Since joining CME Group in September 2006, Sammann also has served as Senior Managing Director of Interest Rates and FX Products, and as Managing Director, Global Head of Foreign Exchange.

Prior to joining CME Group, Sammann acquired more than 16 years of sell-side trading experience in the global FX market, including serving as Managing Director, Global Head of FX Options and Structured Products at Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in London. He also held senior level positions with Crédit Agricole Indosuez in London, Banque Indosuez in Paris and Cooper, Neff & Associates in Chicago.

In addition to serving on CME Group's Senior Leadership Team, Sammann also serves on the Board of Directors of CME Europe Ltd., Dubai Mercantile Exchange, COMEX Board of Governors and the Commodities Markets Council, where he also serves as Treasurer.  Sammann also served on the Founder’s Council and as Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Exchange Professionals Association (FXPA) when launched in 2014.

He holds bachelor’s degrees in both economics and political science from Northwestern University.

Owain Johnson is the Global Head of Research and Product Development at the CME Group. The research and product development team develops new risk management products as well as ensuring the continued relevance of CME Group’s current suite of key benchmarks.  The team also produces original research into financial and commodity derivatives and their underlying markets around the world.

Mr. Johnson previously served as CME Group’s Managing Director of Energy Research and Product Development where he ensured the integrity of CME Group's existing energy futures benchmarks, which include WTI, Henry Hub, DME Oman, RBOB and NYH ULSD. Within CME Group, he was previously the Managing Director of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange as well as Executive Director of CME Group Singapore. Before joining CME Group in 2010, he served as Asia Business Development Manager for Argus Media. Mr. Johnson is the author of “The Price Reporters: A Guide to PRAs and Commodity Benchmarks” and co-edited the Oxford Energy Forum’s report on oil benchmarks. Mr. Johnson is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics and earned his master’s degree from Cambridge University.

Mr. Johnson is chair of the CME Group’s ESG Product Committee; co-chair of the UN’s Sustainable Derivatives Markets Committee; deputy chair of the World Federation of Exchange’s Sustainability Working Group; and a member of the International Regulatory Strategy Group’s ESG Workstream.

Investment and Economic Research at Oman Investment Authority