JOHN J. STEPHENS has many years' international business and banking experience. Trained as a lawyer, he subsequently specialised in business related issues and for 10 years was CEO of a management consultancy firm with many large international clients. From 1992 onwards, he worked in the financial services sector for SANLAM and later ABSA Bank, before specialising in futures and options. He now runs a training company specialising in the futures and derivatives markets and is also a non-practicing advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa.