Cesar Soares is the Owner and Founder of Cesar Augusto Soares and brings to the business, and to his clients, over 27 years experience within the commodities markets globally.
Cesar, South African born of Portuguese immigrant parents, raised briefly in Brazil and educated in South Africa, started his career in Johannesburg in 1998 at Louis Dreyfus (LDC) and was active within the Southern African grains and oilseeds markets till 2003, a period where he actively traded white and yellow maize and sunseeds on SAFEX, managed domestic basis and delivered contracts within South Africa, managed white maize exports to Kenya and Zimbabwe and managed wheat imports into South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia.
Cesar was moved by LDC to Paris, France in November 2003 as the head trader for the newly established Black Sea Unit, comprising Ukraine and Russia, and he was tasked with growing LDC's grains origination within the region. LDC later moved all the Paris operations to Geneva, Switzerland in July 2006 and Cesar was then based in Geneva till his move back to South Africa in October 2008. Within this 5 year period Cesar led the growth and development of a dynamic origination and trading team across the Black Sea region and in Paris/Geneva with a rapid growth in origination volumes, export volumes and profitability for LDC.
Cesar's move back to Johannesburg was prompted by the departure of the management and Cesar took the role of commercial director, and remained in South Africa till June 2011. This was a challenging period of organisational and structural change for LDC in South and Southern Africa and where Cesar managed the turn-around successfully and set the foundation for the next phase of LDC's Southern African growth.
Returning to Geneva as Head Trader for the Black Sea, Regional Head of Grains for Europe and Black Sea and Head of the Black Sea Countries, the period from 2011 to 2017 was punctuated by growth and market penetration, with LDC going to a top-5 exporter within the Black Sea region, largest exporter in Ukraine and where Cesar also led and supported the team that delivered to LDC its first port investments in the Black Sea region, in Azov and in Odessa.
In September 2017 Cesar decided to undertake a new challenge, the creation of the agri-trading activities and portfolio for Sierentz & Cie, a company that was already active within energy trading in the US, and farming in Brazil and Russia, a company with members of the Louis Dreyfus family as shareholders (distinct and separate from the LDC family shareholder). Cesar led the origination, trading and activity development at Sierentz, and as Global Head of Trading managed the growth of the team and the business to over 7.5 mill MT annually of grains and oilseeds execution, origination, and sales, with a base of origination and operations in Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, India, Singapore, Turkey, UAE, South Africa and Brazil, and establishing Sierentz as a first-class counterpart within the global agri trade flows.
Within his experience gained across commodities, within large global MNC's, within the challenges and excitement of establishing a major trading business from start-up and the challenges of the increasingly rapid pace of change driven by technology and data, Cesar concluded that the commodities markets, and in particular the agri-commodities markets, are going to face a period of significant change and head-winds; a period that will entail the redefinition of business plans and priorities, the identification of new trends and new flows, a period of demand consolidation and eventual supply fragmentation and a period where data, fintech and new digital processes are likely to upend the traditional trade flow and trade execution. A period of challenges, a period of change, a period of tremendous opportunities.
It is this vision that has led to the foundation and creation of Cesar Augusto Soares and which serves as the basis of our philosophy, culture and goals: to be at the forefront of the changes and evolution in our markets, to support our clients in best managing and profiting from this evolution and to help support the emergence of the new trade flows, processes and dynamics and the "new trade champions".
Our Founders' credo:
We thrive in change. Let us help our partners thrive off change!
