Swiss Trader Mercuria Hires Andrew Good as CFO for North America
(Bloomberg) — Mercuria Energy Group Ltd., the fourth largest oil trader, appointed Andrew Good chief financial officer for North America as the Swiss firm increases staff and operations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Good is a former GE Capital executive and was previously CFO of the commodities business of Constellation Energy Group as well as Exelon Generation, according to an internal memo from Mercuria’s Geneva-based Group CFO Guillaume Vermersch. Matt Lauer, a spokesman for Mercuria in Geneva, confirmed the contents of the memo.
Mercuria appointed Good to a new position within the company as it builds operations on the continent after buying part of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s commodities unit for about $800 million last year. He will be in charge of all of Mercuria’s finance functions across North America, Vermersch said in the note to company staff.
Mercuria, which is growing faster than its competitors, expanded its Houston office to about 180 staff from 80 after the JPMorgan deal as it added gas and power-trading operations in North America and Europe. The Houston office is now its second- largest behind its 200-person Geneva headquarters.
The 10-year-old trading firm with about 1,300 global employees has offices in Stamford, Connecticut, as well as Calgary, Alberta, where it has about 30 people.
Marco Dunand, Mercuria’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said last month that the Swiss National Bank’s decision to abandon the cap on the Swiss franc against the euro will cost the trader about $10 million per year. Mercuria will expand elsewhere before adding staff in Switzerland due to the increase in costs, he said.
Good’s appointment comes after Rodney Malcolm this month took over as CFO for North America at commodity-trading firm, Trafigura Beheer BV. Malcolm, based in Houston, replaced Bryan Keogh.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Hoffman in Geneva at ahoffman31@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net Dylan Griffiths, Tony Barrett
