Trafigura's revenue was $171.5-billion in 2019, with group businesses in metals, oil, power & renewables and shipping. Andrea Hotter talks strategy with the man at the helm, CEO Jeremy Weir
Jeremy Weir's career at Trafigura almost stumbled before it began.
The Melbourne, Australia-born geologist-turned-derivatives-trader was heading to meet one of the commodities trading house's founding partners, Claude Dauphin, for dinner and already had an idea that the dinner was effectively an interview, on both sides, for a role at the company. But a rail strike meant Weir was delayed, arriving 45 minutes late to the meeting at Wiltons, a restaurant in Jermyn Street, London.
"I was pretty embarrassed!" recalled Weir, now Trafigura's chief executive officer. Fortunately, French-born Dauphin - who had approached Weir through a contact - brushed it off lightly, and the pair had a "great conversation," Weir said. Former Trafigura CEO Dauphin turned out to be an "extremely persuasive, flamboyant and interesting character."
The upshot of the meeting was that Weir took a job at Trafigura, becoming its head...