Bluford (Blu) H. Putnam

Board Member

Blu Putnam is the Chief Economist and Managing Director of the Strategic Intelligence & Analytics team at CME Group, and the operator of futures and options exchanges including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, the New York Mercantile Exchange, and COMEX. He is responsible for leading economic analysis on global financial markets, analyzing client and competitor activity, and managing a team of data scientists. He also serves as CME Group’s spokesperson on global economic conditions and manages external research initiatives.

Blu has over 35 years’ experience in the financial industry, ranging from central banking to investment research to portfolio management, and regularly publishes research reports on the global economy and markets. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from Tulane University in New Orleans. Blu has five books on international finance and portfolio management to his credit as well as many academic articles, including in such journals as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, and the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance.