Our Board

Michael W. Masters is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board at Better Markets.

Mr. Masters is the founder and managing member of Masters Capital Management. Mr. Masters, an expert on the topic of commodities speculation and financial reform, has testified before many Congressional committees and government agencies. He has detailed his views in a series of white papers addressing the far-reaching harmful effects of unregulated commodities speculation and the need for financial reform. Mr. Masters has made numerous appearances in media outlets around the world, including 60 Minutes, CBS News, CNBC, BBC, BBC Korea, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Der Spiegel, and The Nikkei Veritas. He has addressed consumer and corporate groups and has served as an expert panelist before domestic and international investor groups.

Mr. Masters is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where he was an All-American swimmer. The 2004 winner of the "Open Your Heart" award from Hedge Funds Care, he currently serves on the boards of several charitable and private organizations.

Dennis M. Kelleher is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Better Markets.

Mr. Kelleher joined Better Markets after three decades of experience in the public, private, political, charitable and non-profit sectors. He has been profiled in The New York Times (“Facing Down the Bankers”) and on PBS (“Braking the Banks”), among other places. He was also featured in Frontline’s award-winning inside story of the global financial crisis (“Money, Power and Wall Street”) as well as in the German and French public television documentaries on the global collapse.

He has held several senior staff positions in the United States Senate, most recently as the Chief Counsel and Senior Leadership Advisor to the Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. Previously, he was a Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel to a Senate Committee as well as a Legislative Director for a senior member of the Senate. Mr. Kelleher was also a litigation partner with the international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he had a U.S. and European practice specializing in the securities and financial markets as well as corporate conduct/misconduct. 

Mr. Kelleher also served four years of active duty enlisted service in the Air Force as a crash/rescue firefighter/medic, which preceded his graduation with highest honors from Brandeis University and with honors from Harvard Law School.

David desJardins is a mathematician and software engineer. He was among the first 20 employees at Google where he worked from 1999 to 2005. Since leaving Google, Mr. desJardins continues to engage with mathematical research and has been a private investor, an active philanthropist, and a supporter of many progressive groups and organizations.

Mr. desJardins and his wife Nancy Blachman are founders of the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival, a program of math education and enrichment for middle and high school students. He is also a trustee of the University of California Berkeley Foundation, and a member of the MIT Corporation, the Institute’s board of trustees, and a member of the Scholars Strategy Network board. He has also been a member of the Democracy Alliance, an organization of progressive donors and movement leaders, since 2005, and currently serves on the organization’s board of directors. Mr. desJardins is a graduate of MIT where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, and the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his PhD in Mathematics. His dissertation involved the analysis of a mathematical game, with applications to information theory.

Mike Schell concluded a 38-year full-time working career on New Year’s Day 2011.  He was a lawyer, banker, corporate executive, junior high school teacher and construction worker.  Mr. Schell was a New York M&A lawyer for 29 years, having practiced with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP for 26 years from 1979 to 2005 and with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft from 1976 to 1979.  He became a Skadden partner in 1984 and was a key contributor to the development of Skadden’s market leadership in M&A through the 1980s and 1990s.  Mr. Schell was Vice Chairman of Global Banking and a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Group at Citibank from 2005 to 2008.  From 2008 to the end of 2010 Mr. Schell was the Executive Vice President of Alcoa with managerial responsibility for the Legal Department and the Business Development Group.  He was also the Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Executive Council which provided operational and strategic leadership of the company.

Throughout his working career and thereafter, Mr. Schell has been active in a variety of charitable, educational and civic activities. He is a current member of the Investment Committee of Outer Cape Health Services, a life trustee of Lake Forest Academy and a member of the Boston University School of Law Board of Visitors and the Gordon A. Rich Memorial Foundation Board of Directors.  He is a former chair, vice chair and trustee of Lake Forest Academy, a former trustee of Boston University, the William James School of Professional Psychology and the National Down Syndrome Society; a former member of the Columbia University Board of Visitors, the Georgetown University Board of Visitors, a former Senior Professional Fellow at New York University’s Center for Law and Business and a former trustee of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.  During the Obama administration, he served as a member of the National Advisory Council on Minority Business Enterprises, advising the Secretary of Commerce on policy affecting U.S. minority business development.  He served for 10 years as the president of the board of directors of 336 Tenants Corp. in New York City.

Mr. Schell received his J.D. law degree from Boston University and graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English literature.  Mr. Schell is a recipient of Boston University’s 2001 Alumni Award and the School of Law’s 1997 Silver Shingle Award.  He is a member of the Lake Forest Academy Hall of Fame.  He was recognized as a leading M&A lawyer in the world from 2001 to 2005 by Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers, 2001-2005 and led the client representation in Euromoney Magazine’s 2000 U.S. M&A Deal of Year and Investment Dealer’s Digest’s 1998 Deal of the Year. 

Adam White is a Partner and Portfolio Strategist at Masters Capital Management.

Mr. White has served in a variety of roles since joining Masters Capital Management in 2000. He began as Research Analyst with primary coverage of the financial sector. In 2006, he took an 18-month sabbatical to pursue his quest to start a Ministry called the Christian Visual Arts Foundation. In 2008 he founded White Knight Research & Trading to provide consulting-based investment research to various Washington, D.C. public policy-related organizations. In this role, Adam co-authored (with Michael Masters) several white papers on the subject of speculation and its economic and human impacts. He rejoined Masters in 2010 full-time as Director of Research, and in 2018 transitioned to a portfolio strategy role. His previous experience includes risk management roles with The Coca Cola Company the Swiss Bank Corporation. Adam received a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Florida’s Fisher School of Accounting in 1993 and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 1995.