Ron Neal, former head of structuring with Trafigura Group in London, has joined Macquarie Bank to head up a push into commodities trading in the Americas. Neal is working from Macquarie's London office through the end of the year as the head of energy structuring, he says, at which point he will move to the U.S. to head up a new trading desk.
Neal says he moved to Macquarie to work on a new business initiative which offered more resources. He reports to Simon Grenfell, head of Macquarie's energy division. Hiring for the U.S. operations will include at least as many appointments from the physical trading market as from the financial community, Neal says, although he does not yet know how many hires he will make.
In a related move, Trafigura is considering closing its London-based power and gas derivatives unit, a little over a year after establishing the desk. The decision comes as another senior official, David Mooney, head of power and gas, is set to join Merrill Lynch to manage a fund of energy-related hedge funds. Call to Mark Crandall, partner, were not returned.
