Richard Holtum is named new CEO of Trafigura

Trafigura announced on Tuesday that Richard Holtum would take over as CEO of the global trading house Trafigura at the start of next year.

On the same day, Jeremy Weir will be taking over the group chairmanship from the departing CEO, who has held this position for more than 10 years.

Holtum will join Trafigura’s board of directors in October and will hand over his position as global head for gas, renewables, and power to Igor Marin, the current head of energy trading.

The Board of Directors unanimously chose Richard Holtum as the leader of Trafigura. Richard Holtum has been successful in building high-performing teams, and Trafigura’s gas power and renewables businesses into a robust third pillar of the Group.

Holtum began his career as a British soldier and has seen rapid growth at Trafigura. He joined Trafigura's Liquefied Natural Gas team (LNG) in 2014, after joining the rival Glencore.

Holtum added renewables last year to his portfolio after consolidating the leadership structure of the trading house.

Exclusively reported in April, Weir began preparing Holtum for the takeover.

Weir stated that "today's announcement is the culmination a succession plan process undertaken by the Board for nearly three years in order to prepare the organization for the next leadership generation."

This is Trafigura's second organisational restructuring in a short time. Just a little more than a week earlier, the company announced that it would create a new fourth pillar in its business, which will be led by Jiri Zust.

Profit in Focus

Holtum is taking over Trafigura as trading houses' profits are expected to fall after two years of record earnings due to the spike in energy prices and volatility that followed Russia's invasion.

Trafigura’s net profit in the first half of the financial year has fallen by over 74%, its lowest level since 2020. This is after a string of record-breaking or near-record year results from 2020-2023.

Trafigura's record profit has allowed it to increase equity by almost 2,5 times, to $16.5 billion over the past 4 years. This means that the company must spend billions to buy out Weir and other departing shareholders over the next few decades.

(source: Reuters)