17 recent talent moves/promos in ags

• We start with a move at Olam in Geneva, where the new Senior Prop Trader for vegetable oils is Santiago Torres Leon. Lately he’d been global head of oilseeds at ECTP. Santiago is also a former global desk head for soybeans and meal for Cofco International and he spent more than 16 years with Cargill, mainly in oilseed trading capacities.
• Nordzucker says Alexander Godow will succeed Axel Aumüller as COO as from March 2022. Alexander joins the executive board in January, with responsibility for sales/marketing. He comes from being Industry Business Unit COO at dairy-based foods company DMK Deutsches Milchkontor.?

Oilseed trading launch at Sierentz

• Ricardo Delgado moves within Madrid, from head trader in Spain and Portugal for Lemarc Agromond to launch oilseed trading at Sierentz Global Merchants together with Diego Heyse in S?o Paulo. Almost 20 years ago, Ricardo was a commodity trader in Buenos Aires on behalf of Molinos Rio de la Plata. Since then, his slots have included with T?pfer International (Hamburg), ADM do Brasil (S?o Paulo) and CHS (Geneva). Diego’s background includes a position as GM with Graneles Paraguay and commodity trading roles with ADM and Noble.
• Over to Barry Callebaut as Marco Fasciolo is named the Swiss chocolate maker’s latest Cocoa Trader. While based in Valencia for Natra he sourced cocoa beans and went on to be sales director covering cocoa derivatives. Then it was over to Ferrero in Luxembourg in 2019 for two years as category manager on global cocoa.
• Hats off to Hyuntak Lee in Singapore for his appointment as Commercial Director at Scoular Asia Pacific after being GM of Archer Daniels Midland Korea. Most often known as Isaac, he was in Singapore until 2015 when a distribution trader with Cargill Trade & Structured Finance.
• Turning to Export Trading Group (ETG), it brings Felix Müller to its recently opened Hamburg office for International Head-Softseeds Trade. Felix was once a T?pfer junior trader in vegoils and soybean meal, switching to the company’s Elders Grain arm in Adelaide as a canola trader before returning to Hamburg to manage its oilseeds trade. From there he moved to Switzerland, first as ADM senior trade manager in global oilseeds and subsequently Cofco International’s global head of softseeds.?
• Another ETG addition is Cédric Le Toullec. He started with Sun Commodities as an analyst and was a trading assistant for Viterra before being made a sugar trader by Agrifert. Cédric performed a similar role for AGT Foods and now with ETG he’s a White Sugar Trader.
• Freepoint’s newly expanded Geneva office welcomes Sergii Savytskyi for Trader in vegetable oils and biofuel. He’s another former ADM hand, trading vegoils out of Rolle on the north shore of Lake Geneva for three years from 2017. That had followed a Cofco stint in Kiev, managing the softseed crush desk and being a trader in vegetable oils and oilseeds.
• Matias Meligrana arrives to take the GM role at Adamant Europe, located in Den Haag as part of Italian biofuels group Adamant Bionrg. Previously Matias was CFO/Business Manager for the Argentina business of BTG Pactual after being a vegoil trader for the ECTP Buenos Aires office. Between 2008 and 2012, he’d traded biodiesel and soy oil for Patagonia Bioenergia.

We have just welcomed Julian Stow to our team here at Commodity

Julian (pictured) brings with him extensive experience across the agricultural trading spectrum in both physical and financial products. He has worked for some of the industry's leading institutions in both Europe and Asia and brings a detailed understanding of the underlying markets, an expansive network and a true curiosity for the people aspect of these markets. Julian will work closely with Jakob delivering on strategic searches across the ags and softs complex.?

• In Rotterdam, Tom Brok becomes a Senior Trader for Jelle de Vries. Before this, Tom was a senior commodity trader for Cefetra Group. It was his move to the group in 2011 that brought him into ags, from handling gas and electricity contracts at E.ON Benelux.

Sustainability, profits and damn good coffee

• Dave Behrends, Managing Partner and Head of Trading at Sucafina, talks to our CEO Jakob Bloch on how sustainability is good for business.

(click on image for video)

• Brazilian biofuel company Raízen hires Benoit Boisleux from LDC to be the new Senior Sugar Trader at its Geneva desk. When with Louis Dreyfus Company, Benoit was head of sugar research before he became a trader at LDC’s sugar platform. Meanwhile Raízen is growing in renewables by forming a joint venture with Grupo Gera, after an initial public offering of its shares on the S?o Paulo stockmarket by co-owners Royal Dutch Shell and Cosan.
• Roberta Constantin gets to stay in S?o Paulo while changing jobs. After trading for Noble and ECTP, today she’s an LDC Coffee Trader.
• Mentioning the Dreyfus team in Brazil reminds us that Juma Martins has left the coffee trading platform there to take a Sugar Trader position with BP Bunge Bioenergia. It’s the Brazilian joint venture formed two years ago to combine the bioenergy and sugarcane ethanol businesses of the two parent groups.
• Elsewhere in Brazil, Giovanna Machado becomes Derivatives Coffee Trader for Hedgepoint Global Markets and Felipe Drumond is named Coffee Trader by Empresa Interagrícola S.A. (EISA). When Giovanna started at the Brazilian arm of Cofco International she gained experience in both coffee commercialising and wheat trading. For the past year she’s been in origination and coffee exports for Karavel of S?o Paulo. Santos resident Felipe joined the green coffee trading business of Volcafe Brazil as a trainee in 2012, upgrading to junior trader and then becoming a trading assistant for Volcafe Costa Rica. More recently he’s been an assistant commercial director and coffee trader for ED&F Man Volcafe Brasil.

Thanks to our research bench for helping put these newsbeats together. We always appreciate the input received from the market place. Just as we appreciate those of you who subscribe, support and spread the word.

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