Trafigura announces new management changes

Trafigura, a global commodities trader, announced on Friday a round of new management changes. Two people were appointed to the executive committee while one person left.

These moves are the latest in the series of leadership transitions that have taken place at the Swiss-based trading firm in recent years. A new generation of leaders is emerging under the new chief executive Richard Holtum.

Trafigura, one of the leading commodity trading companies in the world, has a net profit in 2024 of $2.8 billion.

Trafigura announced that Ignacio Moyano, after more than 12 years at the company will be resigning as Chief Risk Officer. Chris Afia is set to replace him.

Trafigura stated that Afia was most recently a senior manager at the company's oil division. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has worked at Trafigura for over a decade.

Trafigura announced that Jiri Zrust will be joining the executive committee as global head for operating assets and Igor Marin will be joining it as global head for gas, power, and renewables.

Holtum, CEO of Trafigura, said that the appointments strengthen Trafigura’s executive team.

Zrust, a former executive at private equity firm CVC, joined Trafigura in October last year to assume the newly created position of head of the assets division. The assets were previously managed by the respective commodity markets divisions.

Marin has been with Trafigura since 2011, when Holtum was appointed CEO. He replaced Holtum in the role of global head for gas, power, and renewables.

Holtum was appointed Trafigura’s third CEO in the beginning of this year after serving as its global head for gas and power.

Orhan Gunes is a commodity financier, and the founder of TradeQraft, a platform for commodity trade financing.

It appears that they are prioritizing capital-intensive sectors such as gas and electricity trading to increase margins.

(source: Reuters)