Leadership

As a global company, ED&F Man Commodities understands the importance of a diverse and experienced leadership team. These are the people driving ED&F Man Commodities‘ work on a day-to-day basis.

Chris joined the ED&F Man Holdings Limited Board as Chairman on 15 March 2021. He started his career as a sugar trader at Cargill and brings almost 40 years’ experience of the agricultural commodity processing, handling and trading industry, with particular expertise in soft commodities and the grain and oilseeds sectors. During his 17-year tenure as Chief Executive Officer of Glencore Agriculture, the business was transformed from a medium-sized trading company into a leading agricultural business with 16,000 employees, 240 processing and handling facilities, annual turnover of US$30 billion and EBITDA of up to US$1.2 billion. Chris also chairs the ED&F Man Commodities Limited Board and is a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee.

Jade joined the Group in September 2020 with the primary role of re-focussing and de-levering the business. Jade is a chartered accountant, with experience in a broad range of sectors including trading, retail, manufacturing, financial services, mining and media. She has worked in public and private companies and has many years’ experience in private equity, both in-house and in portfolio businesses. More recently, from 2013 Jade was interim COO of Stemcor where she designed and implemented a new global risk framework and led both corporate services and frontline businesses through their restructuring. She then went on to manage the sale and wind-down of the residual businesses from the Stemcor demerger. Outside of the Group, she has held a number of non-executive directorships including a cobalt and copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a UK student housing business. Jade is a member of the Holdings, ED&F Man Commodities Ltd and other Group boards. Jade is also a member of the Group Audit and Risk Committee.

Phillip joined the Group in September 2021 bringing twenty years’ experience as a finance executive in the commodity trading sector, having worked in management roles at Glencore, Noble and most recently as CFO as Nasdaq-listed Ferroglobe. During his time at Noble, Phillip worked in various roles including as Chief Operating Officer based in the US, where he led the company’s restructuring of its Global Oil Liquids and its North American Gas & Power businesses. He has also worked for Glencore in senior finance roles at subsidiaries in Switzerland, Africa and the US. Phillip brings a combination of financial expertise and operational leadership to ED&F Man. Phillip is a member of the Holdings, Commodities and Empresas Iansa Boards and also a member of the Group Audit and Risk Committee.

Richard joined the Holdings Board on 29 March 2023 and is also a chartered accountant with experience working with companies and their management teams to assist in realising incremental value. He worked in the UK and Europe across a broad range of sectors, including manufacturing, housebuilding, construction, facilities management, retail, packaging, financial services and distribution. More recently he was Group CFO of a private equity owned UK waste business for nine years. Richard lead the group’s financial restructuring and subsequent refinancings and developed the strategy to realise value for the shareholders which was delivered through the sales of the group’s four divisions, the last of which was completed in 2018. Richard chairs the Group Audit and Risk Committee and Remuneration & Nomination Committee. He is also a member of the ED&F Man Commodities Ltd Board.

Alex began his career in 1996 as a brokerage clerk at the international brokerage division of ED&F Man Services Limited, before moving to the sugar logistics department in New York until 2000. He returned to Europe and joined his family-owned commodities trading firm which mainly dealt with white sugar trading and fertiliser distribution. Alex and the company traded in various commodities, such as bioethanol, robusta coffee, rice and fertilisers mainly distributing in Africa and with an annual turnover of circa $1bn, but his key focus always remained on sugar trading. Alex was actively involved in developing bioethanol trading before merging the business with Green Energy, a major UK fuel distributor and former client. He re-joined ED&F Man Sugar division with his team in December 2012, after the family-owned white sugar trading desk was acquired by the Group. With 23 years’ experience in the sector, Alex has wide expertise in finance, risk management and logistics along with a deep knowledge of the overall sugar trading activity with particular emphasis on key destinations in the frontier markets such as Africa. Alex is a member of the ED&F Man Commodities Limited Board.

Trishul has been Managing Director of Volcafe Limited since 2015. Established in 1857, Volcafe is one of the largest coffee traders in the world with its headquarters in Winterthur, Switzerland. Trishul has over 25 years’ experience in coffee. After completing his masters in agricultural commodities at the University of Illinois in the US in 1992, he joined Louis Dreyfus as a coffee trader. During his tenure with the global agricultural merchant, he was Head of EMEA for Coffee from 2000, Head of Global Physical Trading for Coffee from 2006 and became Managing Director of their Coffee Division in 2008, when he also joined their Senior Executive Committee. Under his leadership Volcafe has focused on its reputation for quality, reliability, sustainability and client partnerships with the vision of becoming the ‘world’s best coffee partner’. Trishul plays a leading role in the wider coffee industry, driving sustainability and campaigning for fair farmer income. The Volcafe Way programme, where over 250 agronomists work with farmers to improve skills and profitability, is now established in nine origins. Trishul is a member of the ED&F Man Commodities Limited Board and chairs the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.

Arie is Managing Director of ED&F Man Liquid Products (MLP). He oversees molasses trading, feed distribution, beet pulp trading, storage and other related activities. Arie originally joined ED&F Man in 1995 as part of the coffee business and was located in Asia and London before returning to The Netherlands. After leaving in 2001 to work for a mineral oil trading company, he re-joined ED&F Man in 2007 as senior molasses trader for the Far East based in Amsterdam. Arie was promoted to Managing Director Europe, Far East & Africa in 2012 and assumed global responsibility for the overall business unit in December 2016. Arie is a member of the ED&F Man Commodities Limited Board.