The creation of the external affairs department combines the responsibility of all media, community and government affairs for the Exchange.
Ms. Boyd was retained as senior vice president of government affairs in January 2004. She had been a member of the Exchange board since 1998 and was gasoline trader on the Exchange since 1987. She is the only woman in Exchange history to serve on its executive committee, a position she held from 2000 to 2001. At the time of her staff appointment, Ms. Boyd was chairman of the Exchange government affairs committee and co–chairman of its petroleum products and local advisory committees. Ms. Boyd is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Ms. Boyd served as chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange Charitable Foundation committee since 1992 and was named president of the Foundation in January 2004. Under her guidance, the Foundation has grown from an annual budget of $125,000 to more than $2 million in 2004.
She has also continued to serve as chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange Charitable Assistance Fund, a public charity formed in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, which resulted in the distribution of $4.4 million to families of the victims associated with the Exchange.
Mr. Raia was promoted to senior vice president of marketing from vice president of marketing. He has more than 22 years of experience in the energy and transportation sectors and has held various positions in oil transportation and trading. Mr. Raia joined the Exchange in 2001 as a marketing director and was promoted to senior director of marketing in 2002 after successfully leading the marketing effort surrounding the launch of the NYMEX ClearPortsm trading and clearing platform. In 2004, the system was named New Energy Innovation of the Year EnergyRisk Magazine.
Immediately prior to joining the Exchange, Mr. Raia was an energy industry consultant, most recently working for Aquila Energy in Kansas City. Earlier in his career, Mr. Raia was senior vice president of business development for JAGfn, a live financial news show, where he was responsible for arranging broadcast placement contracts with several large broadcast, satellite, and cable companies. He also served as senior on–air energy analyst/anchor for JAGfn and reported on equities and commodities in the energy sector on–air several times per hour, including interviewing chief executive officers, corporate officers, and financial analysts.
Mr. Raia is a graduate of the New York Maritime Academy and sailed in the U.S. Merchant Marines, exclusively on oil tankers of all sizes, until 1988 when he received his U.S. Coast Guard master's license.
Mr. Kerschner joined the Exchange in 2004 as associate general counsel and director of corporate governance. His responsibilities have included Securities and Exchange Commission reporting, corporate governance, and general corporate and securities matters.
Mr. Kerschner's in–house, public company experience includes corporate governance issues, debt and equity financings, acquisitions and joint ventures, intellectual property licensing, international transactions, and material litigation. Prior to joining the Exchange, he served as special counsel and senior advisor to the legal department of T–Mobile USA; as the senior vice president and general counsel and secretary of SmartServ Online, Inc., previously a Nasdaq–listed mobile data company; and as the managing counsel of Omnipoint Communications, a multi–billion dollar Nasdaq–listed wireless telecommunications carrier acquired by VoiceStream Wireless and subsequently, by T–Mobile USA. Prior to joining Omnipoint, Mr. Kerschner was in private practice with a New Jersey law firm.
Mr. Kerschner received a bachelors degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988 and a juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991. He subsequently received a Certificate in Investment Banking from New York University and served as a barrister with the Bankruptcy American Inns of Court.
Mr. Kerschner currently serves on the advisory boards of the National Association of Corporate Directors – New Jersey Chapter and the Georgetown University Law Center’s Corporate Counsel Institute. He is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and is admitted to practice law in New York and New Jersey.
