Ph.D.
Bill Seale is a partner in the ProFunds Group, the parent of ProShare Advisors LLC and ProFund Advisors LLC, managers of ProShares ETFs and ProFunds mutual funds, respectively. For over 10 years as Chief Investment Officer he developed the financial models and investment techniques that direct the investments of the over 200 ProShares and ProFunds, managed the 35 portfolio staff and oversaw the funds’ trading. ProShares and many of the ProFunds are leveraged or inverse funds, and those portfolios include significant positions in equity index total return swaps, credit default swaps, futures contracts and futures options.
Dr. Seale is a Professor Emeritus of Finance at The George Washington University (Washington, DC) where prior to the formation of ProFunds he was Chairman of the Department of Finance and Senior Associate Dean of the business school. While at GWU he was actively engaged in a consulting and expert witness practice through his firm, Financial Markets Group, Inc. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. His graduate area of concentration was production economics. He is a long time member of the Washington government and business community having served a 5-year term as a Commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (a presidential appointment), worked as Government Relations Vice President for a New York located futures exchange and as a senior legislative assistant to United States Senator Walter D. Huddleston.
Dr. Seale has been a frequent commentator on public policy issues relating to financial markets and was a two term public member of the Board of Directors of the National Futures Association (the self-regulatory organization of the U.S. futures industry). Additionally he has also been a public director of the Kansas City Board of Trade, the New York Cotton Exchange, the New York Board of Trade and the New York Futures Exchange. Over the past 35 years he has testified on numerous occasions before various House and Senate legislative committees, regularly appeared on programs related to financial markets and derivative instruments and been frequently interviewed by both US and foreign news media. With regard to his duties at ProFunds, he appeared on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg Television, the Nightly Business Report on PBS and various radio shows.
Dr. Seale’s academic teaching areas included futures markets, derivative securities and financial management. Mostly retired, but actively engaged in the philanthropic activities of his foundation, he spends his time between his home in Annapolis, Maryland where he is a member of the Annapolis Yacht Club, boating along the U.S. East Coast and golfing at his home in Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo. He is an active pilot who owns several airplanes and holds a private pilot certificate with instrument and seaplane ratings.