All change at the top at Louis Dreyfus Company

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Ian McIntosh, formerly chief strategy officer at agribusiness giant, Louis Dreyfus Company Holdings BV (LDCH), has been appointed the company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The move follows the resignation of Gonzalo Ramírez Martiarena as CEO, after 13 years with LDC, who wants to pursue other opportunities.

Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, chair of the supervisory Board of LDCH, said Ramírez Martiarena's efforts have put the group in its "current solid financial position" and created the conditions for its next phase of growth.

McIntosh has worked with LDC since 1986.

He led the UK Grains desk from 1989 to 1991, and then moved to Paris to trade global feed grains, followed by a move to Melbourne to lead LDC’s Australasian grain activities. He returned to London in 1993 as a sugar trader, and was appointed global head of sugar in 1996 to lead the platform’s global integration and expansion. Between 1999 and 2006, he also managed LDC’s global coffee, cocoa, rice, ethanol and grains business, among other group activities. He was appointed head of Europe and the Black Sea in 2007. In 2008, he left LDC to set up Edesia Asset Management as part of the Louis Dreyfus Group, serving as CEO and CIO until its closure in 2018.   

LDC said Federico Cerisoli, currently deputy chief financial officer (CFO) and group controller, is now taking on the role of group CFO. The company said that Armand Lumens, the previous group CFO, has left LDC for personal reasons. 

Cerisoli joined the group in 2008 as CFO of the Calyx Agro start-up. Soon after, he was appointed CFO for what was then the South Latin America Region, and in 2013 took up the role of regional CFO for Europe and the Black Sea. He later served as metals platform CFO, and regional CFO for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). LDC said that prior to joining the group, he worked for over 17 years in finance, commercial and business development at various energy companies in Argentina, Brazil and the US.   

Patrick Treuer has replaced McIntosh as LDC’s chief strategy officer. He was previously global head of strategy for LDC and serves as non-executive chair for Biosev.