bringing the Exchange up to date by developing an initial version of electronic trading. Sandner ended up becoming the longest elected exchange chairman in the history of the futures industry. He stepped down from the role in 1997 due to term limits. That same year, he unveiled a proposal that would permit traders to send orders for futures contracts via the internet directly to the trading floor. Upon his retirement as chairman, Sandner was elected special policy advisor to the CME board of directors. He also served as chairman of the CME Foundation. He was a member of the team that took the CME public on December 6, 2002, making it the first exchange in the United States to be publicly traded. Sandner played a significant role in the acquisitions of the Chicago Board of Trade in 2007, and the New York Mercantile Exchange the following year. He also served on the board of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange. Public service and community involvement Sandner testified frequently before Congress as an industry leader, most notably the 1980 Gold and Silver Crisis, the 1987 stock market crash, and in the 1990s the modernization of financial services regulation. Bill Clinton invited Sandner to address his economic summit in Little Rock in December 1992. Three years later, U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin appointed him to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Financial Services. He was asked in 1997 to be the U.S. Chair for Financial Services at the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue Conference in Rome. Clinton later appointed Sandner to the President's Export Council in 1999, the premier National Advisory Council advising the President on International Trade. Sandner was appointed in 2001 by Congress to serve on the Library of Congress National Digital Strategy Advisory Board (NDSAB) to develop a national digital strategy for the preservation, management and distribution of the government's digital materials and information. Sandner was a trustee of the University of Notre Dame, Rush University Medical Center, the Museum of Science and Industry of Chicago, and the John G. Shedd Aquarium. It was in this capacity at Notre Dame that he persuaded the school to establish a program for individuals with special needs. He was chairman of the Cancer Institute at Rush University Medical Center, and served on the boards of the National Futures Association, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, Ryan Specialty Group, and Virtu Financial LLC. He